This Had Oscar Buzz - 126 – Reservation Road

Episode Date: January 4, 2021

For our first episode of the new year, we’re taking things back to the very This Had Oscar Buzz beginning. Back when this old podcast was just a single service Tumblr, the first THOB entry was 2007���s Reservation Road, a domestic drama starring Joaquin Phoenix and Jennifer Connelly as a family mourning the loss of a … Continue reading "126 – Reservation Road"

Uh-oh, wrong house. No, the right house. I didn't get that! We want to talk to Maryland Hacks. Professor, Ethan Lerner. This is my associate, Ethan Dwight Arnault. Afternoon. Ethan, he lost his son last week.

I'm sure you heard about it. We're going to offer a reward. Half a million, whatever I can get against the house. I want this guy to feel that he's hunted down. Your client is going around photographs. They damaged SUV. He scared the daylight's out of a Saudi diplomat. Your son, Lucas, if somebody killed him.

would you want to have happen to them? Why are you doing this? No one else is doing anything. I thought that was why we got lawyers. I had to go away for a little while. Will you tell me what's wrong? Hello and welcome to the This Had Oscar Buzz podcast, the only podcast that knows it's still 2020 as far as awards are concerned.

Every week on This Had Oscar Buzz, we'll be talking about a different movie that once upon a time had Lofty Academy Award aspirations, but for some reason or another, it all went wrong. The Oscar hopes died and we are here to perform the autopsy. I'm your host, Joe Reed. I'm here as always with the fireflies that I keep in a jar, Chris File. Hello, Chris. Hello, first of all, how dare you call me those fireflies? The second I read that in our outline, I was like, oh God. It only means that I will follow you till my untimely death. That is what it means. Yep, until Mark Ruffalo kills you. Yes. Got to be killed by Mark Ruffalo. Like, what a way to go.

Oh, stab me, daddy. Murder me, Mark Ruffalo, yeah. Anyway. Anyway. Of course it would, here's the thing. It would still be 2020 in award season if it was a normal calendar, regardless of the stupid calendar, where Oscars aren't voted on until March. Oh, yeah.

Don't get me wrong. That is not a commentary on this weird year that we're having. That is a commentary on the way it goes. Parasite won the 2019 Best Picture Oscar. not the 2020 Best Picture Oscars. Real ones know. By the year of the film, not the ceremony. Real ones know, and our audience is all real ones.

So, uh, you know, you know, it's, it's, you know. Maybe that should be our, uh, listener fandom. They're just real ones. The real ones. You like that better than the thobbies? Um, yeah, I guess. Uh, our fans are the thobbies and their alt is the thobbies. throbbies. Wow. Wow. That's why I don't like

either one of those things. Because it sounds like throb. And unless we're going to be talking about Janet Jackson, it always makes me think of that. Thank you for affirming that for me. Yes. Yeah. Maybe we should change our theme song. Just a throb. Yeah. That'd be amazing. No, no explanation why. Right, exactly. We will never mention it again. Exactly. All right. We're doing kind of a momentous pick for this week. for our first episode of 2021. We are.

We are. We are. It feels, I was saying this before we were recording. It feels a little bit like a reset. It's our first episode of the new year. Yep. Yeah, uh, but this is a very, we're doing Reservation Road, a movie that is probably the deepest cut that we've done in quite a while, but it's very formative to what

this podcast is. Joe, can you, uh, illuminate us who might be unaware why? I sure can. So I went into the archives on This Had Oscar Buzz, as many of you know, but maybe not everybody. This had Oscar Buzz began its life as a Tumblr account that was literally just me posting photos of movie posters and just being like, this had Oscar buzz. Remember when this had Oscar buzz? The days of the single service Tumblr where it was like the post itself based off of what the name of the Tumblr was, was a punchline. One of my favorite eras in interneting, like for all the things that are, you know, good and bad about the internet, I really loved the era of the single service Tumblr.

I always say that I wish I had done one on movie theater marquees in movies, which I find fascinating. And it's one of those things that I almost Twitter account for that. I, yes. Yeah, nowadays, even single service Twitter has sort of gone away now that Twitter has just become like toxicity on demand. and that's sort of what Twitter is there for right now? You scroll and it's like toxicity on demand, toxicity on demand, no context succession gifs, toxicity on demand. I do love no context succession gifs. But at that era, they were sort of like, there was a lot of them.

And I was, as I say, this was, I looked at in the archive. It was January of 2012, which, like, were we ever so young to be in January, to be in Obama's first term? Are you kidding me? Like, crazy. January 2012 at my job didn't have a lot to do that day and I was sort of as I was sort of tooling around on Twitter and whatever and I sort of whatever for whatever reason thought of the movie Reservation Road from 2007 and at this point again January 2012 this movie is not that old this movie is only five years old and yet it had completely passed out of my mind out of the cultural mind like it's as if it had never existed and And it was just like, it's so, and I just had the thought of like, it's so weird that this movie doesn't exist now, like, as completely devoid of cultural connotations. And yet, in the lead up to that year, it was absolutely predicted for Oscars. It wasn't really predicted.

I had initially, in my memory, my memory had built this movie up that everybody thought it was the frontrunner from like a year ahead. That wasn't quite the case. Even among people who thought it would do well, like, Atonement was the big year-ahead prediction for focus features. And that one panned out more, you know, somewhat at least. It got the Best Picture nomination. But Reservation Road was definitely on the radar for everybody, especially for acting awards, because this cast, as we'll get into, two of them had Oscars and one of them had been nominated twice by this point. And then there was Mark Ruffalo, who everybody was just like, when's he going to get nominated? he's great. And so I was just like the gulf between the expectations for this movie and what

happened is so funny to me. And I was like, well, I could either tweet out just like, remember when this had Oscar buzz and just a, you know, reservation road? I'm like, or I could just do a Tumblr. And on a whim, I decided, I'm just going to like create a Tumblr. And so I did. And I, and it's, this had Oscar buzz. And I'm looking at the archive now and that first like week I did like dozens of these things it was one of those things where I was just like I'm just going to get it out of my system

and like if you go to the very first month in the archive in January 2012 for this at Oscar Buzz I've got like and now I'm trying to count them up on the fly which is a very dicey proposition so yeah it's like almost 70 entries in the very first month

because I was just like I'm just going to like barf this all out and there was so many of them to do. But what I think is interesting, Chris, is that of my first five entries, this is only the second one we've ever done on this podcast as a podcast episode. Oh, God. I'm trying to think what the other one could be. What's another, like, definitional this had Oscar Buzz movie from the 2000s, from the early 2000s. Well, it's not the shipping news, because famously we're going to Susan Lucci, the shipping news on this podcast. Right. Okay, so you started the Tumblr and

January, 2012, so it can't be... I don't imagine that your first five entries would be a 2011 movie, so it's 2010 and before. Right. One that we've done, so it's not going to be like World Trade Center. Right. Amelia? No, we haven't done Amelia. We haven't done Amelia. Too early for cake.

It stars one... at the time Oscar winner and one future Oscar winner Um Is it a spacey? Oh, it's not pay it forward? No, it's not pay it forward, although it should be.

Pay It was definitely one of my early entries in this. I'm pretty sure, although no, I'm not seeing it. Weird. Anyway, no, this is a, there's some romance and happening between, these two leads that I just mentioned

and questionable accent work and a foreign locale and war not far and away I know the four feathers is on there we got to do the four feathers The four feathers is one of my top five yes I was

one of the first five that I'll mention once you guess this one. The title is very peculiar. It's one of those titles that is its own punchline, kind of. I'm going to slap myself in the head as soon as... There's an instrument in the title. Oh, Captain Corelli's Mandolin. It's Captain Correlli's Mandolin.

Yes. So this is only... Pella Bombina. Exactly. This is only the second after Captain Carly's Mandolin of those first five entries that I did. The other three are Things We Lost in the Fire, which we need to do. You mentioned the Four Feathers, and for whatever reason, I put message in a bottle, the Kevin Costner, Robin Wright, Paul Newman film, message in a bottle. I would have to research that, but I'm pretty sure that might have been a February release, but pushed back?

I think that's true. I think that's true. Kevin Costner, the thing about Kevin Costner, which will eventually do, like, the upside of anger, even with shit like the postman. Yeah. Like, he shows up in a movie that seems glossy, and people are like, I don't know, maybe. Yep. Because he's one of that rare fraternity of actor-directors who Oscar intensely loved briefly. You know what I mean? Yes.

Like, Redford is sort of that, too, although Redford's appeal, obviously, is much more broad and far-reaching than that. But even still, like, Robert Redford was, like, the quintessential actor-director. And Costner fit into that, and much more unpleasantly, but Mel Gibson sort of fit into that as well. And those people, you know, retain that Oscar buzz. Like, it just, you can't scrub it off of them. But anyway, yeah, so I've always, I've wanted to do Reservation Road on this podcast for a while. And I don't... It's also from our listener's choice, the worst performing movie we've ever had on a listener's

Joyce poll. And I'm positive that it's because no one knows what it is. Yeah. Well, the title certainly doesn't describe anything. And also the fact that the very next year, there was a movie called Revolutionary Road that did get Oscar nominations, even though that was also somewhat of a divisive movie. And so that, I think, really helped just sweep the ashes of Reservation Road off of the map. And, like, no one thought about it anymore. Because if you thought, even if your brain said reservation road, the other part of your brain was like, I think you're being Revolutionary Road. And just like, and then you just moved on and thought of a different thing.

And I want to describe the poster, not the poster as exists on IMDB for whatever reason, but the one that I used for the blog where I think it was the DVD cover. But it's... The DVD cover is the one that looks like pieces of shattered glass. Yes, so it's a windshield that has been cracked and splintered, and each of the three, it feels so bad, because, like, it says at the top, like, focus features, and then it's one of those things where it's the names of the stars, so it's like, Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Conno, Mera Sorvino, except Mira Sorvino isn't on the poster, and that always, like, OCD bugs me, when either A, the person whose name is on the poster isn't on the poster, like, above the title. And the names above the floating heads are off by one. Also that. That was what I was going to say.

If they don't match up. If it's a bunch of names and you only have three floating heads, that's fine. Sure. But like this one where it's like. Or like Miris Sorvino needs to have an and because then it's like she's going to be some type of reveal. She would, she's the perfect candidate for an and in this movie because A, she's not in the movie as much as the other ones. And B, she's an Oscar winner. So like, it should have worked.

But anyway. So yes. So this poster is already stressed. me out because it has the four names spaced out so that you would think, like, each of them would be under it, but it's not. And also, it's in the wrong order. It's Phoenix Connolly. Connolly's in the middle, for whatever reason, making you think like she's a much more prominent character than she is. We'll get into what a problem it is that you don't really get much of her in this movie at all, for a couple of reasons. And that, of course, it's like

from the director of Hotel Rwanda, which we'll totally get into, the Terry George of it all. and a positive quote from Pete Hammond, if you'll believe it. Like, if you were going to get a pull quote for Reservation Road, you were going to get it from Pete Hammond. For Peter Travers. Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, so we're going to talk about Reservation Road at long last. I guarantee you very few of our listeners have seen it, but that's fine. That's what we're here for.

Unless you're like me and you watched it for free on Peacock. Yes, that's we both watch. It watched it streaming on Peacock, and I will say, I don't think mine had commercial breaks. Did you have, does yourself have commercial breaks? Do you pay for Peacock? I certainly do not. I don't either. And it was very jarring to have not even 30 seconds after the, like, death of the child at the beginning of this movie.

A very, like, sunshiny, cheery ad for life insurance. Maybe I did have ads, and I just wasn't noticing it because they were not too much. when watching this movie in Peacock are very inappropriately placed. Yeah, I keep threatening to do an article on that about which streaming services that have commercial breaks do it more or less obtrusively, and I feel like Peacock is one of the worst ones where, like, there is no rhyme or reason. TV TV is really bad. Is it Tooby that does it pretty well?

It's one of those. No, do something like that. One of those, you know, ones on your streaming device. that you can watch, and there's no rhyme or reason to it. But one of them, I remember thinking, like, oh, they do commercials pretty as unobtrusively as possible. Anyway, let's do the plot description early this time, just so we can really, like, jump into it.

Yeah, we're definitely doing a movie that none of you have seen. Right. How do we know none of you have seen it? Because it made $120,000. Not million. Do not say million. Imagine if this movie made $120 million. Sorry.

The movie made $120,000. Thousand. $1,000 crazy. Didn't even play 40 theaters. Yeah. It's not too well. It really, truly just disappeared from the face of the earth so quickly. And with a cast like this and with a director coming off of, you know, a success like Terry

George was becoming, that's essentially why we do this podcast because it's just like, why, how, how did this happen? What's going on? We get into it basically cratering at its festival premiere as well. Yeah. Okay, so I'm going to task you in a second with doing the 60-second plot description, but before that, I'm going to say that we're talking about Reservation Road. It was directed by Terry George, written by John Burnham Schwartz and Terry George,

with stars like Mark Ruffalo and Joaquin Phoenix and Jennifer Connolly and, Miros Rivino and of course our darling L. Fanning. This is our, what did I say? Our third L. Fanning movie after... Yes, we are a Sisters Fanning podcast even though I don't think we've done a Dakota movie. We should do a Dakota. We've got to do,

we've got to do American Pastoral at some point, speaking of Jennifer Connolly. Oh, boy. Yeah. Anyway, yeah, we love our L. Fanning. And this premiered, world premiered, at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 13th, 2007. It opened a month later on October 19th, 2007, and was never heard from again.

So, as I bring up my timer, one second, one minute and zero seconds. All right, Chris, are you ready to illuminate our audience on the plot of the film Reservation Road? New Year, new me, I'm going to get better at the 60-second plot. description in this podcast, pretty sure I said the same thing last year. Is that a resolution? We need a resolution, Chris. Yeah. All right. Thank you, Alia. Yes, exactly. Thank you for everything, Alia. Okay. If you are ready, I will start your time now. Okay, so the Reservation Road follows two different families, the learner families, which is led by Joaquin Phoenix and Jennifer Connolly. Immediately at the beginning of the movie, their son gets hit in a hit and

Run. Turns out the driver in the hit and run is Dwight, played by Mark Ruffalo. He was trying to get out of the way of a vehicle and his son was in the car when they hit the little boy. He drives off and doesn't stop and then is racked with guilt for it. Meanwhile, the learner family is grieving. They still have a daughter named Emma. Anyway, the father, Ethan, played by Joaquin Phoenix, falls down the rabbit hole of like online chat rooms and grief support groups and it gets more and more gross. Meanwhile, his wife Grace is just like, had all the time. Dwight ends up being the lawyer trying to support the learner families to pressure the police department to find out who it is and then he's like oh, it's definitely Dwight, but Dwight leaves a video for his son saying, hey, I did this, I'm going

to go get arrested. And then he leaves Dwight to kill himself, but we don't know if he does. I think he says in the video that he's going to jail. So I think we're led to believe that he does not kill himself. But Ethan, rather, because he's like,

Maybe I don't want to kill him because he has this whole thing of the maximum sentence that his son's killer might face in jail is like 10 years for a hit and run crime. Right. And that is not sufficient to him. So he kind of goes vigilante, but then when he can kill Dwight, he doesn't, he like has some reservations about it. And then gives him the gun to potentially kill himself, but the movie ends with Dwight's son seeing his confession video. Right, right. Dwight's son played by One Life to Live star Eddie Alderson, which I need to mention because I mention my soap people's in this podcast. You love your stories.

I love my stories and I miss One Life to Live every day. Okay. Yeah, so I wrote down in my notes, this is the most, this would be a. TV show today movie we've ever done, and we've done a few movies that I've said that this would be a TV show if it was made today, but like absolutely this one for a billion reasons, one of which is the economy for a movie about four adults that, you know, go through feelings like this, like doesn't really exist anymore, but also like how many limited series or like, there's one on showtime literally right now with Brian Cranston, where his son, you know,

hit and runs a mobster son, and then they got to figure your shit out. And it's just like, that's just what, like, this would have been a TV series on, like, not even a particularly good, uh, limited series on television. But like, it's such a, it's such a TV plot in a way that, like, I don't mean to sound derisive, but I kind of do what just. First of all, I think it probably would be better as a TV show, because you can actually go into some of these things that it glosses over with some level of depth. This movie is like a bar risk

102 minutes. It is. I kind of thankfully because it's not a good movie. Yeah, yeah, because it's not good. And like we're doing it for our purposes. But like a TV show of this probably would be better because you could explore a lot of these layers of like grief and guilt and

certain things that like that I found most interesting about it that I wish like, rather than these two separate narratives competing with each other, we got one or the other. I would be interested in a movie that just as Dwight as the protagonist where you're dealing with the guilt of this and the process of that so that you don't have to go through these very obvious bullet points of what that narrative is. And then I was also fascinated by where it's like you could have a whole episode on this

if it was a limited series. Joaquin Phoenix's character in like falling down the mid-aughts version of the internet. Yes. I was just about to say that was one of the other. On the list of things that I do think would have been interesting to flesh out

if it was a television show is that idea of that the internet can be, can provide both a support system for somebody who's going through grief like this but it can also provide an easy way to sort of funnel your grief into an obsession that isolates you and, you know, takes you out of your life. Maybe puts you towards some bad decision-making. Right, right. And I think that's actually really interesting.

And if, you know, a story wanted to focus on the angle of that in a way that was not necessarily lurid, but sort of, you know, responsible, interesting. whatever. I think there's also, we've seen plenty of movies and some TV shows about a couple who experience tragedy and it drives them apart. There's sort of that phenomenon of, you know, parents who lose a child and then they end up divorced not long after. And you could explore that. I think this movie does this on a very surfacy level with some really sort of surfacy scenes between Joaquin Phoenix and Jennifer Connolly, where they just end up yelling. at each other. I actually think Joaquin's pretty bad in this movie. I think Connolly is better, but she's also tasked with these like really, these monologues that don't do her any favors.

I think the one really good, the one good performance I think in this movie is Ruffalo. I think Ruffalo, I think Ruffalo fleshes out a character that I'm kind of interested in and sort of at least feel a little bit for. But, well, in our entry, what I think what speaks to his performance being the compelling one in this movie is, like, the entry point to this character is the hit and run. It's this abhorrent thing that he somehow gets to spend the rest of the movie, like, fleshing out and humanizing and making compelling. Also, let's hear it for the subgenre of awards-buzzed movies where Mark Ruffalo kills someone with a vehicle. Because we'll end up doing Marguerette at some point. But I feel like this is a...

Noted distracted driver, Mark Ruffalo. Marguerette, which was supposed to be released the year before Reservation Road came out. And obviously it wasn't for another several years. But, yeah, I think Ruffalo is good in this one. You also get those flashes before the accident, where you can already see he's, you know, he's a complicated person he's kind of a fuck up clearly he and his ex-wife have a lot of tensions he's very nervous about bringing his son home because he knows that he's gonna you know he's overstepped his whatever visitation bounds by keeping the kid out obviously um him wearing a red socks cap and being a

red socks fan is a uh character defect that i find very interesting that we could explore where obviously early aughts movies red socks fans are bad and should be, go to jail by the end of their movies, I think, is a fine message that Reservation Road sends, and I do co-sign that. So that's good. You just lost us a bunch of followers. How dare you? I will counterbalance this. Any Red Sox fans, listeners, I am, I am not a sports person, but I understand your, whatever. I love you. Wow, that was convincing. I'm sure that we have Red Sox fans amongst us. I'm going to be Lizzie Kaplan falling backwards into a sea of teenagers

Flash in the Doublebird as far as that. Suck on that. Joe is famously from the state of New York. No, I say that because I'm being a jerk, but whatever. You love me for it. Anyway, yes. I do, and I don't think our listeners will begrudge you. I'm sure we've had more listeners that have begrudged things that I've

said about noted actresses who might be in the Oscar race this year. Can't imagine who you're talking about. You have come... I love her. You've come close to revealing your animosity there for a while. Anyway, back to Reservation Road. Back to the good performance. So, yeah, so you agree with me that Ruffalo is like the one good performance.

Yeah, I think he's definitely the most solid thing in this movie. Mark Ruffalo, okay, we've maybe talked about this with Mark Ruffalo before. This is our third Ruffalo. Hello? Hold on. Sodiak in the cut. Oh, no, it's our fourth, 54. Yep.

Yes, the unexpected 54 of it all. Yeah. It's also our third L. Fanning. Yep. Two of which are when she was a child, this and the door and the floor. What's the third L. Fanning? What's the other one?

Hold on. Hold on. I've got it in a second. I've got my list. Uh, bu, bu, blah, blah, blah. Oh, somewhere, of course. Ah, yes, of course. Where she's wonderful and somewhere. Yeah.

Yeah, our third off-fanding, our fourth Mark Ruffalo. Weirdly, I think it's our first Joaquin Phoenix and our first Jennifer Connolly, which is wild and crazy kids to me. Like, that's... I wonder how many slatteries we've done, because John Slattery is in this movie. Oh, I think I wrote that down. Hold on. It's our second, because he was in our very first one. He was in Mona Lisa Smile.

and now all the way till now. Yes, John Slattery. And our first Mira, I think it's our first Mirro Srovino as well. I wish she was in this movie more. I suspect you feel the same. She is a great leveler in this movie. She feels like the only normal, like in a movie that is very, like, bent on telling you these people are all caps, normal people. She's the only one that felt like a normal person.

She is their daughter's piano teacher and also the ex-wife of Dwight because this is a byproduct of the 90s where all of these melodramas, everyone has to be connected, right? Yes, yes, yeah. And her husband isn't played by Rick Springfield, but he could have been. Like, honestly. Well, no, because these like aughts melodramas, you know, when there is an ex-wife involved, The wife has to marry someone who is hotter, who could conceivably have played Jesus in a TV miniseries. Wait, what else are you thinking of? I don't know.

That's just a trope. It just feels like the ex-wife always marries hot Jesus. See, I was thinking the ex-wife always marries somebody who is like comparatively beta, which like the money ball of it all is sort of where I went with that. But he's like... Someone hip. but he's also like chill he's also just like he's not going to be the one like showing up at the front door with a baseball bat like you go to go man he's like hey man listen he's not the toxic masculinity that uh that you think that you expect maybe uh ruffalo's character was

um but like yes you're right everything is so absurdly interconnected where like ruffalo ends up working for the law firm that phoenix goes to and the climax of this where Joaquin Phoenix figures it all out because of the telltale Red Sox hat and like finally, after spending much, much time with Ruffalo working on the case and like they've interacted plenty of times.

Lots of conversations about SUV grill protectors. Right. There's a lot of that. Also, okay, most 2007 aspects of this movie, one of which is SUV as significant fire of vice. Another one of them is lots of talk about the Red Sox fucking breaking the curse, but also that one little... Basic HTML websites.

Basic HTML websites, but also that scene towards the beginning where Joaquin Phoenix is the college professor and they're all debating about the Iraq war and about whatever, like, military shit. And I'm just like, not another 2007 movie that's obsessed with America's place in the world because of the Iraq War. Like really, truly, we were as a nation just ill with that stuff. Like, we were, there was a fever, and it had not broken, and it was figuring out what the fuck, how to deal with the Iraq War.

And even this movie that doesn't have anything to do with that, decided it needed to throw in its own little Lions for Lambs scene at the beginning of this movie. And I was just like, God, not again, not more of this. Okay, so this is the perfect timing for this. I'd mentioned to you before we started recording, this movie in its terrible box office run also opened the same weekend as another movie we've covered on the podcast that also world premiered

at the Toronto International Film Festival. Was it bump, bump, bump, bump, bump, rendition? Rendition. Yeah, okay. A Papa rendition. Yes, exactly. There were a couple movies that I sort of thought of during this, one of which was Mystic River, which we'll get into in a second when we talk about the grieving parents genre.

It's a little bit like Mystic River with women. It's filmed very... And it has no more female characters than Mystic River does. Its visual style is very reminiscent, I think, of Mystic River in a lot of ways. It made me think because of the Ruffalo thing and the two couples thing, it made me think of we don't live here anymore a little bit, which compared to this movie is the best movie in creation. Like, I wanted to be watching, we don't live here anymore so much.

And, like, me don't live here anymore is a decidedly, I don't know if I would say mediocre, but, like, there are good things and there are not good things about. I don't have to see it again. I remember really loving Laura Dern in it at the time before it was cool to love Laura Dern. She's great in it. I stand by that. Anyway, we'll do we don't live here anymore at some point.

We have to. my pledge to you before the year is out of doing four Naomi Watts movies. Right, right. Once we're past May and a year has passed since the Naomi Watts miniseries, we'll do, we don't live here anymore. Anyway, but yeah, so rendition is what I thought of when there was that little Iraq war piece. I was just like, oh, right, we were on. Another movie that opened on the same weekend as Rendition and this, the aforementioned things we lost in the fire. the fuck out of here.

What a cursed weekend. Genuinely, what a cursed weekend. What was the number one at the box office that weekend? Hold, please. All right. Should still have the page open. Oh, my God. I watched this for the first time this year for spooky season.

Based on a graphic novel. Can you guess this? Spooky season based on a graphic novel, so not bug. No. And Bug wouldn't have been number one. at the box office, and Bug was earlier in the year, that year. Has a few, I think, at least one direct-t-d-d-d-d-de-d-de-cels. Is it 30 days of night? No. It is 30 days of night.

No way. Wait. Oh, right, because I was already in New York in October of 2007. I was like, I remember watching 30 Days of Night in New York, but yeah, that does make sense. Wow. Good for 30 Days of Night for finishing number one in the box office. 30 Days of Night features a scenery-chewing performance by Ben Foster that beats out even many other scenery-chewing performances by Ben Foster. It is absolutely stunning what he's able to do in that movie. Wonderful. Okay, so let's get the Terry George's of this out of the way early.

Because there really isn't actually a ton to say about Terry George, even though he was a huge reason why this movie had Oscar Buzz because Hotel Rwanda was such a seemingly organic Oscar success by which I mean it was one of those movies that like people saw and really liked

you know what I mean in this sort of limited release it was it was a Toronto movie it was a Toronto movie I feel like the word of mouth on that was really good I think Hollywood types really loved it and it was a late release too so like it was a slow

build. I don't think it did as well in the early precursor season, but like it just kept building momentum and momentum. Was that also a focus? If that was a 10 best picture nominee a year, probably would have been a best picture nominee. It was a lion's gate movie. Yes, I think you're right. If that was a, yes. In fact, I think it might have been like sixth or seventh that year. I agree. But yeah, Sophia Kinato got the very surprising supporting actress nomination because it really was coming on at the end. And so I think because of that arc, people sort of expected that Terry George was on the ascent from that. Terry George, best known for he, before Hotel Rwanda, he had written or maybe

co-written the screenplay for In the Name of the Father. Yes, him and Jim Sheridan co-wrote the screenplay for In the Name of the Father, which was a many-time Oscar nominee for Daniel D. Lewis, Pete Passell Thwait, Emma Thompson. it was a best picture nominee and best director. So, like, it was a big, big Oscar success, that one. And then Hotel Rwanda, a decade later, and those are sort of the two big things. He's from Northern Ireland.

He was born and raised in Belfast. He had actually, like, a lot of associations to the IRA, which makes sense with the name of the father of it all. But you would, wouldn't think that necessarily when watching something like Hotel Rwanda, but an interesting sort of thing about his life. And then, like, after Reservation Road, which is his follow-up film, three years after Hotel Rwanda,

it's a lot of nothing. He does a movie called A Whole Lot of Soul that I've never heard of, starring Brendan Fraser, and Colum Meany, our friend Columnini, from the fighting Irish guy from far and away. I was going to say, is that a movie about my timeline right now? A whole lot of soul. People talking about the movie Soul.

But also in this movie is our beloved Yaya De Costa. Put Rispeto on her name. And so, yeah, have never heard of this movie, Whole Lot of Soul. Who, what studio released this one? Like, super, super indie. Distributed by Lightning Entertainment Group in 2012. It played the Tribeca Film Festival. So, yeah.

So absolutely, like, invisible movie, which is too bad because we love it. Yeah, yeah. And then in 2016, there was the, I'm pretty sure this movie was delayed a bunch, The Promise, with Oscar Isaac and Christian Bale and such. Isn't that like Open Road or someone? It was Open Road. God, you're good at that. Yes, Open Road.

It premiered at Tiff in 2016. nobody saw it there, and then it didn't open in the States until the following April. Nobody saw it there probably because it was like the second Thursday gala or something. Yes, it was, I think it was, it opened well into, well, it says it opened September 11th, 2016, so that's usually midpoint around TIF, generally, if my dates are consistent. is a $90 million budget on this movie, which, wow, wow, that Terry George at this point in his career commanded a $90 million budget for what is this. I don't even know what this movie is about. It seems like it's very sort of historical sweep.

But like, what's the... Is there a romance? I'm sure, because it's Charlotte LeBahn, who we have talked about when we did our episode on Zewalk. is she's the romantic lead. The poster looks very much like the Four Feathers, but maybe that's just... Okay, so the long line on I... I can picture the poster, but I don't think I ever saw a trailer for it. I definitely didn't see the movie.

Right. Set during the last days of the Ottoman Empire, The Promise Follows a Love Triangle between Michael, who is played by Oscar Isaac, a brilliant medical student, the beautiful and sophisticated Anna, who I'm assuming is Charlotte Laban, and Chris, which is Christian Bale, a renowned American journalist based in Paris. I forgot it had Christian Bale in it. Yes. Christian Bale with like on the poster a Chester A. Arthur-esque mustache that sort of goes, I know Chester A. Arthur also had the mutton shop, so maybe I'm confusing my American president portraits.

He left like Appalachia of out of the furnace and went to the Ottoman Empire to shoot the promise. Like the very bushy, walrissy, um, beard or mustache that, like, moves down into the goatee thing. Anyway, yes, nobody saw the promise. And that was sort of, that was the last major film that Terry George has done. And... I love that me, of all people. The first thing that I remember about that movie is it's distributor and nothing else. And nothing else.

Yeah. Yeah. So he also did some directing work on the cursed HBO show Luck that killed a bunch of horses and then was canceled early. So there was also that. So yeah, so not a whole really ton to talk about with Terry and George. I think he was, as I said, a big reason why this movie had a lot of buzz. People figured the Hotel Rwanda trajectory would keep going. And it very much didn't. And then I think that was sort of, you know, we could. kind of filed him away as kind of a one-hit wonder of a director. And I think ultimately, looking back on Reservation Road and it's Oscar Buzz, it's more interesting to talk about the cast, but I think also the themes and the plot, because I think that was a big reason why people looked at this movie is the, I wrote down in my notes a history of grieving parents and Oscar, but like, it's kind of true where, like, you really It's a, we talk about character types that the Oscars really like.

They like, you know, great men in history. They like supportive wives of great men in history. They do, every once in a while, love a charismatic villain. And they also really tend to respond to parents who have lost a child and who spend a good part of the movie grieving. I sort of... Domestic drama. Right. But, like, this, like, there's, like, Kramer versus Kramer domestic drama, which is, like, that is a thing, too.

But, like, they really love this kind of actors portraying deep and unimaginable grief, right? And so I sort of wrote down this stuff. And it comes in different forms. There's ordinary people, which obviously does very well, which is, like, a family reacting to tragedy and in this very sort of, like, brittle way. But like 21 grams was not long before Reservation Road, which I feel like is a little bit of an antecedent of just like, look how much Naomi Watts got on just playing pedal-to-the-metal grief in that way. Monsters Ball were Hallie Barry's character experiences a terrible loss of her child partway through that movie, and that helped propel her towards Oscar. this same year as Reservation Road, Tommy Lee Jones gets a nomination for In the Valley of ELA, where he's playing a grieving father of a soldier son in the bedroom plays on this. There's a little bit of in America where they're dealing with, they don't really talk about it much until the end of the movie, but the loss of their child. Obviously Nicole Kidman and Rabbit Hole is that's very much the point of that movie. Casey Affleck would go on to win an Oscar for me. Manchester by the Sea, which is, you know, New England grieving parent, which this movie

also is because this movie is set in Connecticut. And I mentioned Mr. Griver, which, you know, wins Sean Penn and Oscar, too. So it's definitely, when the log line of this movie comes out, combined with Terry George, combined with the cast, you can see why people were just like, oh, the Oscar voters are going to really respond to that. Yeah, absolutely. But at the same, well, okay, it's, I guess it's a two-prong thing. as to why it failed so resolutely and so quickly. It's like you have the prominence of a film festival premiere, a huge premiere as a world premiere,

Gala, Tiff. Critics immediately hate the movie, but focus features that was distributing it had a bunch of other priorities that year. Yes. Whereas if this got better reviews, they maybe would have focused this more. Yeah. Yeah.

mentioned Atonement. We mentioned Atonement, but like there was, even their smaller stuff that year ended up becoming priorities in different ways. Right. Eastern Promises ends up getting a Best Actor nomination for Vigo Mortensen and was showing up in precursor awards. Lust caution was definitely getting promoted and ended up winning precursor awards for other certain things. And it had a whole publicity cycle because of its NC-7. Rating. Right. Ended up on a lot of top 10 lists. Critics really loved it. The Angley coming off of Brokeback Mountainness of it was obviously a big angle with that one.

But then even stuff like talked to me, which ends up not really getting much of anything in that season. Casey Lemons has talked to me. But like, Cheetos' performance in that was absolutely buzzed about and... Definitely got more ink than Reservation Row did at the end of the day. And even as a fail,

Failure, evening, which was another Focus Features movie, is a more interesting failure than Reservation Road was. So, like, even as a bomb that, like, ended up squandering all its buzz, Reservation Road, like, had to take second place at its own studio for that year, which I thought was interesting. Yeah, but, like, its ultimate box office performance, which, like, the focus didn't really even try. They never put it in more than 40 theaters. It was, like, people that showed. up and paid to see this as a regular paying audience, probably barely more people did that than saw it at that Toronto Festival. Right. So that Toronto Festival kicked off on September 6th. This didn't premiere until September 13th. So this is absolutely the late in the festival thing that

you were mentioning a little bit ago. Like that it's not always a kiss of death. Sometimes it, you know, goes the other way. Obviously, Green Book is a big example of something that premieres late in the festival and ends up doing really well in award season. So, like, it's not always a one-to-one correlation. But premiering that late at TIF, like, already, even you get the feeling that, like, even the festival programmers were just like, maybe not our night one gala. Maybe not our opening weekend of the festival. And you can see why. Like, you watch this movie and you're just like, I think I see the great movie that you were maybe trying to make. But it all falls very flat or predictable or – and I do think Joaquin Phoenix isn't good in it. And I think you need him to be really good in it. He's definitely miscast, I think. And, like, this is – this is a weird point in Joaquin Phoenix's career. It's like almost a transition point. You want to question if it is, like, the straw that breaks the camel's back, where he's going from walking.

the line where Hollywood is trying to make him a leading man but it's a little bit of a square peg and a round hole that's absolutely true and also like do you obviously you remember him he won the globe that year

and he was Oscar nominated but did it seem to you during that whole thing that he was either a little embarrassed during that whole thing or B wasn't really into that project to the degree that like obviously Reese was and like Reese winning the Oscar for it was

I think he's not into the dog and pony show and like in a way that in the past year when he won for Joker it you know it feels like it was a little bit more on his terms the whole like awards run

of something and it felt like people were more reverential to his body of work and people understood him and who he was more so than it was at the time of Walk the Line where Walk the Line

it's like really you can see the Hollywood apparatus trying to push him in a certain direction and I think whether or not it's the direction

he wanted to go I don't think he's a performer or personality that wants to be pushed in any direction but yes his whole

his whole awards run for that movie was you know it was like awkward and uncomfort for him. You could tell that he wasn't happy with it, to the point where it's like he could

have been a competitor to win if he had been more willing to play the game. And I guess good for him for not. Right. I guess. Yeah. I mean, I've always found him his posturing to that regard a little bit annoying, but whatever. But that year it was clearly like, this is a guy who doesn't want to do this and is, you know, right. Being forced to by studio. Yeah. But yeah. So, I think you make a very good point about where he is at this point in his career, where Reservation Road comes right in between, actually, two James Gray movies that he does, that he gets really good reviews for, which are we own the night, which was earlier in 2007, and then two lovers in 2008, both of which were really good reviews, but don't really break through

into the culture the way, you know, you would maybe hope that they would. But clearly, he fits well with James Gray, and obviously he makes, you know, other movies with him, the immigrant several years later. But so, like, that feels like he's in a pocket that he's really comfortable with, which you maybe don't always see his career before this. I remember when we were on Little Gold Men and we were talking about Gladiator, which was his first Oscar nomination. I was surprised to remember that, like, oh, right, this is the kind of actor, the kind of performance that Joaquin Phoenix would give back then that he doesn't really give now. And that one, it felt it wasn't, it was broody, I guess, but like there was a, there was a penash to it that I was just like, oh, like, I don't, you don't really see this walking Phoenix anymore. But also, like, this is when he's done, he's does signs and the village for, Night Shamelon, which...

So good in signs. I think he is, too, but, like, I don't think that's the Joaquin Phoenix we get really anymore either, right? Where it's like, it just feels like it's a slightly different performer. And even, like, he's making movies like Latter 49. Like, can you imagine him making a Latter 49 now? Like, it feels totally, absolutely outside of the realm of what he does. And... Latter 49 is not a real movie.

I don't know what you're talking about. He's also, by the way, I totally forgot. he has a supporting role in Hotel Rwanda that... Yes, he does. So this is also like a reuniting. Yeah, he tends to sort of double up and triple up sometimes with his directors, which I think probably speaks well of him. But so after two lovers in 2008,

that's then the great sort of schism in his career, where he takes off between two lovers and then later the master in 2012. That's four years where he doesn't make an actual movie. The only movie he makes is I'm still here, which is, I think, very, to me, it's the fracture point of his career, kind of, where he, from there on out, and we can talk about I'm still here, even though I've never seen it, so I don't want to really talk about it as a thing. Yeah, I have better things to do with my time than watch that movie. There's the whole swirl of, you know, obviously bad behavior on the set from Casey Affleck, and that's where the whole, you know, Casey Affleck issues stem from. And again, I haven't seen the movie, so I don't want to speak on it without knowing.

but it also has never felt like a thing like what do I want to I don't want to watch Joaquin Phoenix you know traveling up his own ass about his is what it is right right and it's it's always seemed obnoxious to me and yada yada yada whatever but like for the purposes of this discussion I think it's interesting because obviously at that point he seems to really make the decision of what kind of career he wants on his terms and sort of of seems to be really aggressive about sticking to it. And like his movies all really coalesce from that point into being like Joaquin Phoenix movies where it's the master, the immigrant, even her to an extent,

which her, it's Spike Jones, it's brighter, it's, there's comedy to it and whatever. But like his character is so much like you can never quite feel comfortable with him because it's Joaquin Phoenix doing his Joaquin Phoenix thing still. So I think that still really fits with what else he's doing, but that... I mean, I kind of disagree that the master and her are like overridden.

It sounds like you're saying like it's so definitionally Joaquin Phoenix for you. And like, I think those are movies that are so like more defined by their artur. And like, Joaquin Phoenix is able to do what he does within their world. No, I think, no, yes, I'm, I don't think I'm saying otherwise. What I'm saying is his performances feel like they're all, they're all telling versions of the Joaquin Phoenix performance story, right?

Sure. Where I just feel like his career choices from this point out, from this point out, adhere to each other better than they did in the before I'm still in your times. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you know what I mean? You talk about, like, the performer as auteur thing, like Isabel Loupair has been mentioned for. I don't think Joaquin does it. Joaquin Phoenix does it as well as some of the other performers, or, like, Nicole Kidman. Right. And I like some of his performances better than others in this, but I think you can see a throughline from The Master, the Immigrant, Her Inherent Vice, You Were Never Really Here, which I think is like, more and more feels like it's the definite. original Joaquin Phoenix performance for me just because I don't like it. I don't like the movie. I don't like, I would not choose to watch it if it were my choice. And that feels like very much a lot of the Joaquin Phoenix thing for me. And yet a lot of other people seem to like it, which is also the Joaquin Phoenix thing for me. Well, I mean, I think that's why he steamed rolled for Joker is that they were also rewarding this body of work that like mainstream awards voting groups are.

are never going to support like you were never really here. They're just not going to get behind something like that in a wide, a huge voting body is not going to throw their consensus behind something like that. And yet, I look at his next movie whenever we get it, which, you know, hopefully at some point maybe in 2021, is the new Mike Mills movie, Mike Mills of 20th century women fame. I'm really excited to see what Joaquin Phoenix is like in a Mike Mills movie. It feels to me like it's going to be like one will prevail and whoever prevails will determine whether I like the movie or not because I do like it's not like I love all the Mike Mills movies. I actually thought Thumb sucker was pretty cute. But I did not like beginners as much as everybody else liked it, which made me feel sort of alienated from it. But then I loved 20th century women so much that now I feel like, well, now I'm a Mike Mills fan. Joe and I would absolutely lay on the train tracks for 20th century.

women. One million percent true. I would release a jar of fireflies and run to my death for 20th century women. But so now I'm like, now I'm curious whereas, and I don't think Joaquin Phoenix is the kind of actor to allow winning the Oscar to sort of move him into a new phase of his career. Yet, I'm curious as to whether, come on, come on, has him doing something maybe a little bit differently than he does, then he's done in the master and inherent vice. If it's closer, I assume that it'll be closer to the mode of her, which is maybe my favorite performance of his. So I'll be excited for that if that is the case. I am excited. It's called Come on, Come On, Come On. And come on, come on, new movies in 2021 that hopefully still get

released in theaters. Exactly. And it's age 24. They said they're absolutely not doing right any type of VOD type of thing it even felt like first cow was somewhat of a compromise because it was in theaters right before COVID hit so to maybe put a button on the Joaquin Phoenix talk not to relitigate Joker in any way which is a movie I hate and a performance that I hate yeah I don't know I like I feel I feel at least glad for Joaquin Phoenix that he can um not have some type of Oscar Spector over him, which, like, to the point of what I was saying with the whole Walk the Line, you know, awards platform for him, it feels like he is, I don't want to say, like, liberated, but he doesn't have to deal with that anymore. I think he'll probably be, even if Come On, Come On, is like an awardsy movie, like, he's not probably going to play the Dog and Pony show anymore. It doesn't feel like it's the specter looming over his head of like,

this could be a performer who gets an Oscar one day. Yep. I also, sorry, to just put the, close the loop on his other upcoming projects. Oh, yeah. At least according to Wikipedia, he is listed as in the new Ari Aster movie. Oh, right. The so-called four-and-a-half-hour dark comedy. which feels more in line with, like, the Walking Phoenix thing.

But again, Ariaster. It also feels redundant for Ariaster movies because he already does make four and a half hour to comedies. I have loved his movies so much that, like, it does feel a little bit like 2021, 2021, or the years where Joaquin Phoenix is coming for these filmmakers that I love. And I hope that they survive it. And then he's also making a Ridley Scott movie where, He's playing Napoleon? That's not going to happen. Well, we'll see.

We'll see how it goes. Anyway. But the other performer in this movie I wanted to talk about, and with respect to Ruffalo, who I think is very good, and Mirisrovino, who I love and invented Post-its, and we love her for that. I want to talk about Jennifer Connolly in this movie, because her career, when it comes to, within the context of Oscar, is, really interesting slash disappointing slash, you know, whatever, where obviously at this point in 2007 with Reservation Road, she had won the Oscar several years before

for a beautiful mind for supporting actress. A performance, I think, is good in a movie I hate. It's not a great performance. It's not one I would have given an Oscar to, but I don't think she is... She's the most grounding thing in that movie. Yeah, and I think that was a big part of the reason, Even among people who liked that movie, they responded to that grounding really, really well.

And she is the one you really latch on to in that movie, and I think it really helped her end up winning the Oscar. But that award was a culmination, I think, of a few years of doing really, really interesting work. Because, of course, her whole thing was she was, you know, introduced in Once Upon a Time in America, and then obviously Labyrinth was such a sort of big crowd-pleasing kind of a thing for her. And she was sort of up and coming for a while. I remember there was a while where she was like the hot young girl in a way that like, remember when we like sexualized Alicia Silverstone around the Crush era and Drew Barrymore during her Poison Ivy era.

It felt like Jennifer Connolly also had an era of that that I always found a little uncomfortable to watch, sort of play out, watching sort of, there seemed like there was a lot of men leering at her for a little bit. But then she started making just this succession of really weird slash fascinating autour stuff, where like she's in Dark City. It's the movies where they end with Jennifer Connolly at the end of a pier, you know, that little trope where it's just like Dark City and Requiem for a Dream, both ending the exact same way.

She's also in that film... She dies on the car crash at the end of Pollock with Pollock. Yes. Yes. Oh, like, super, super harrowing to watch, actually. Watching that scene play out where it's just like they're... Anyway, he just murdered them and died in the process. Anyway, anyway, she's in that movie with Billy Crudeup called Waking the Dead

that I would always confuse with bringing out the Dead, which are definitely two different movies. What was the other Billy Crudup movie, Jesus's Son? She's not in Jesus' Son, but she's in... But he is, and I confuse those two movies. Oh, that's interesting. But she's also in inventing the Abbots with Billy Crudup. And she's also in a movie in 1996, Lee Tomahori's Mulholland Falls, which for a while would get... I would see Mulholland Falls on a thing, and my brain would say Mulholland Drive, and I would perk up to it.

And I'd just be like, oh, no, it's just Mahaland Falls. But, yeah, so then she wins the Oscar for a Beautiful Mind and does the classic follow-up populist movie that nobody likes, which I feel like was a thing for actresses winning the Oscar for a while there. I think of, like, that's the Eon Flux thing for Charlize. But she's in Hulk, Angley's Hulk, nobody likes it. And except for obviously now it has this sort of like resurgence in terms of, you know, people who... Ironic appreciation. I don't even think it's for that one. even think it's ironic appreciation. I think it's one of those just like, we didn't,

we didn't recognize this. It's one of those superhero movies that is different than other superhero movies. So nowadays, those seem- It's not an algorithm movie, so people really respect Angley for trying it. Right. But that same year, she's in House of Sand and Fogg, which is a huge Oscar buzz movie for her. People think, like, that's going to be her next, her sort of follow-up nomination. She's on the cover of that E.W. Oscar's issue with Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts. That was almost entirely cursed because it was almost over three. The three of them, like Naomi Watts did get that Oscar nomination and

saved that cover from actual cursed status. But everything else in House of Sand and Fogg's Fogg seems to do well. Kingsley gets the nomination. Shori Agadashli gets the nomination, but she doesn't. Maybe that's really ripe for revisiting, too, in our current age. I've seen a couple people. Even more miserable than it ever was, but, like, she's great in it. The nominated performances are great in it. That scene where she steps on the nail, I still think about daily, where it's just

like, it's not daily, but like often, where it makes me full body react. I think it was Richard Lawson, past guest Richard Lawson, who watched that recently and was tweeting about it and saying how good it was, and it made me want to go back and watch it again. But that's sort of that fate of House of Sand and Fogg, where it's like other people did well with it, but she didn't, kind of was a theme for her for a little bit, where 2006 she's in little children, Kate Winslow gets the nomination. She doesn't. She's absolutely underserved by that movie, where even, like, Phil of Somerville got more Oscar talk than... Yes.

Which, like, I don't understand why Jennifer Connolly would play that role that's barely in the movie and doesn't really do. do anything? Right. And then that same year, she's in Blood Diamond, which once again, the pattern holds two co-stars get nominated, none of which, none of whom are her, Leo and Jaiman Hansu, get nominated for Blood Diamond, and she doesn't. And so that's sort of, that's the vibe of Jennifer Connolly going into Reservation Road. And Reservation Road obviously doesn't get two Oscar nominations for its co-stars, but if it did, they wouldn't be her. And it's like, it's just it's the same kind of thing where it's just like she takes this role in a movie and the role is completely unremarkable and just doesn't serve her well and it's I mean and again I am

very reluctant to more and more as the years go on reluctant to blame actresses for taking nothing roles because I know that the roles are hard to come by like really good roles for actresses. And, like, I, you know, you take what you can get to keep your career going. But She was also being a parent during this time, too. Right. But it's just really unfortunate that I think she's a really, an incredibly interesting and talented actress. And people don't think of her in creative terms in terms of casting. And I think she could really do something outside of the box. This is very narrow box of like aggrieved wives that she's been placed in. Truly, one of the biggest offenses is that there's a movie called The Wife and

she is not that wife. Not that wife. Yes. But like, and I think her role in American Pastoral is very similar to that too. We're just like, she is the wife and other people are more interesting. But after reservation. Noah, she's the wife. Yep. Yep. But like, after Reservation Road, and she does make, she makes the day the earth stood still where you know, that's an odd movie that, like, I don't think is a bad movie, and, uh, but nobody really talks about that anymore. But then she gets into this, like, real wasteland in her career where she's, for some reason in, he's just not that into you. Like, she's the most of the

puzzling people who are in that movie. Like, why is Scarlett Johansson in this movie? Why is Bradley Cooper in this movie? Why is Jennifer Connolly in that movie takes the cake? And it's just, like, it just makes no sense that she's in that movie. Um, she's a voice in the animated movie nine that is not the musical movie nine but the other movie that came out in 2009 like it's so I hate it I hate that confusion nine nine and in 2009 yes she and then like she and the Dustin Lance Black movie the disaster that uh you know took a few years to come out ended up being called Virginia what was the original title it's like what's wrong with Virginia or what's happening with Virginia hold on it was what's wrong yeah it was originally what's wrong

with Virginia it might have even played a festival or two under that title but ended up just being called Virginia. I've never seen it. She's in a bunch of movies with Paul Bettney that, like, none of which go anywhere. They finally made that Darwin movie called Creation, where she's, again, the wife of Darwin and doesn't go anywhere. She's the uninteresting character in The Dilemma, Ron Howard's The Dilemma, which I always sort of stick up for because it was the first movie where I found out that Channing Tatum is funny in addition to being hot, which, like, what a discovery that was. But, like, it's movies that you've never heard of, something called Salvation Boulevard, where she's in it with Pierce Brosnan and Greg Kinnear.

And she's in, uh... She's in that movie Winter's Tale, which is supposed to be bananas, and I do want to catch up to that. But Winter's Tale is a absolute bonkers bananas, like, go see it in the theater because it's that bad kind of a movie. And she's absolutely the part that you forget that she's even in it. Like, it's... You even forget she's in the MCU. She's one of the most, like... Well, she's just a voice in the MCU, but yes, yes, you're right.

Still counts. Still counts. She is the voice of Spider-Man's. I was like the first person, at least, that I saw in the timeline, that I was like, that was Jennifer Connolly. Yes. She's in Alita Battle Angel, apparently. I don't want to... Again, you warned me about saying anything about Elita Badgell Angel, so I won't.

Stance will come for you. She's in another Paul Bettany movie called Shelter in 2014. that I've never heard of, so fine. I feel like I have heard of that. She's in a movie called Only the Brave in 2017 that I don't remember being a thing. It's interesting that she's never played like Liam Neeson's wife

in a bad action movie. That's indistinguishable from all the other Liam Neeson action movies. Take one of the Famca Jansen roles away from Famke Jansen. So, she's interestingly, this year she was supposed to have been in probably easily her biggest role in a decade or more she's going to be the love interest

for Tom Cruise's character in Top Gun, the new Top Gun Maverick that I'm not super interested in but a lot of people are because it's, but like and again... Is she the villain on the Snowpiercer show because what I don't want to see her do is I want to see her be the villain of Top Gun. But everybody

thought Snowpiercer was terrible. So the Snowpiercer show, at least. So, like, yes, but, like, that is an indication that maybe, you know, she's ramping up into being more visible roles and things. And obviously, the love interest for Tom Cruise is never a good role for the actresses who play the love interest of Tom Cruise and things. But it's easily her biggest project, and, like, she's third lead in that movie. And, like, it's not, like, Top Gun, the original, did some good things for Kelly McGillis's career. Like, it probably got her a bunch of roles that, you know, she hadn't gotten before. So, like, you could see a best case scenario for Jennifer Connolly where Top Gun does good things for her career, maybe.

You know, she's at least going to get paid well for that movie. At least that, and good for her. She's not, she's never been one of my, like, who are your favorite actresses? I would never, you know, think of Jennifer Connolly in that way. but I've always wanted ever, you know, ever since this sort of lull hit in her career, I've always wanted better for her career because I think she's a really interesting presence. She's, she, it's just a vibe that you don't get from a whole lot of other actresses, where it's this, it's not quite minor key, but just like it's quiet devastation sometimes.

Which I think it's so weird that Reservation Road asks her to give this big sort of scream scene or whatever, where it's just like, that's not what I come to a Jennifer Connolly thing for. I come for her being sort of like a little bit darker than you expect someone in whatever role she's taking to be. And I don't know. I don't know. She's incredibly charismatic, and I want that back for her. This is not the movie that did it.

This is not the movie that did it. This is not that movie. I mean, like you mentioned that darkness. That's kind of why I want to see her play. like a scheming bureaucratic villain. Yeah, well, yeah. And I think maybe, I mean, maybe, you know, seek out the Snowpiercer TV show.

Maybe it's better than what I had heard. But I don't know. You wanted to talk about the Hollywood Film Awards. The one award that, of like, major note that it got. And Jennifer Connolly got it for supporting actress. The Hollywood Film Awards, which we've like hinted at before, or maybe we've talked about it long. ways ago. They're not really a thing anymore and they used to be more of a punchline like along

the lines of the Golden Satellites where it was even more so than like the Golden Satellites who voted for Wolf of Wall Street without even having seen it. The Hollywood Film Awards used to take place in the summer like truly before some of these movies would be completed or seen by anyone um so it's like it truly was a like congratulations to your publicist um type of prize i wrote down some of the uh this had oscar buzz movies i think the prototypical uh Hollywood film award win is Hillary swank for amelia gave her best actress this was when these were still happening in the summer so no one had seen Amelia Right.

And it's also just, like, kind of indicative towards this is what this distributor is going to be pushing for Oscar sometimes. Well, it's interesting because I'm looking at the lineup from this 2007 and, like, actor. Richard Gear wins best actor for the hoax. For the hoax. Like, what in the world? Travolta wins supporting actor for hairspray. And yet, and yet, like, their actress of the year is Marion Cotard for Lovian Rose. So, like, that one did, you know, pan out.

So it's not all this, like, they're not all the most bananas things you've ever heard of, but, like, enough of them are. They do, like, some things that are just, like, more indicative of where we thought the race was going to go from when they were in the summer. Now they're not in the summer. They're in the fall, but it is still an award show, basically, for people's publicists, not for themselves. Director of the year that year was Mark Forster for the Kite Runner. Like, it's that kind of a thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Where, oh, it's so weird.

The previous year they gave best director to Oliver Stone for World Trade Center. Right. Yeah. 05 is particularly cursed. Director was Sam Mendez for Jarhead, supporting actor Matthew Broderick for the producers. Supporting actress Susan Sarandon, tap dancing at a funeral in Elizabethtown. Yeah. Okay, this is also the last two things that are listed on the IMDB tab for this.

2007 Hollywood Film Awards kind of tell the whole story where Hollywood World Award went to four months, three weeks, and two days because that was obviously like the acclaimed foreign language film especially in the early part of that year and then the very next one, Hollywood

movie of the year is 300 so who the fuck knows and it's good they're like basically nobody even knows that they still happen but apparently they do they are largely embarrassing. Yeah.

But for this movie to be a prototypical early, this had Oscar buzz, like, that's what I think of of this era. I think of like the first awards coming out being the Hollywood film awards. Yes. This was also prototypical for other reasons, too. I mean, the TIF premiere, I remember this one in the EW Fall Movie Preview had like, you know how like it was divided into months and like the first. Oh, was it the first one of its month?

I don't know if it was the first October or if it was the second. You know what Super Sucks is I have the 2007 fall preview issue for this at home back in New York. And I can't access it because I've been estranged for my home. So, yes. The other thing I noticed on the awards tab for Reservation Road is it got a, it was a nominee for the Alliance of Women Film Journalists Award for movie you wanted to love but just. couldn't, which is such a fraught way of talking to that. And so, okay, I'm going to list you the nominees and the winner for this category at the Alliance of Women Film Journalists.

Reservation Road is one of them. Movie you wanted to love but just couldn't. Evening is one of them. So really, Focus Features was dominant in this category for the Alliance of Women Film Journalists. Georgia Rule, the fraught production that was Georgia Rule, that was more of a story for, you know, tabloid shit with Lindsay Lohan than anything else. The winner is going to make you mad, though, Chris. It's Margot at the wedding. Love Margo at the wedding.

As do I. But it was, but the line. Maybe it won because Jennifer Jason Lee shits herself in the movie? Well, it's one of those things were like the line on Margo at the wedding, especially when it came out, was oh it's so like it's unlikable even if it's good it's like it's hard to like it

it's so mean spirited it's so whatever like if you go in you know looking for a great Nicole Kinman performance and you are rewarded with just like just bad feelings being thrown your way and it's you know it's classic Noah Baumbach in that way where it's like Noah Baumbach is really capable

of just being very unpleasant It's kind of the Noah Baumbach I want back See, my Noah Bomback is Greta Gerwig Noah Bomback. Like, it's Francis Haugh and Mistress America, Noah Bomback, which always, you know, tempered his bile with, you know, something else. Yeah, but then you have, like, marriage story, which is, like, bile-free. Oh, I don't think so.

That scene that everybody quotes without context on Twitter and annoys the shit out of me, where he's just like, I wish you were dead. Like, there's, there's bile in Marriage Story. I like Marriage Story a lot. I like Marriage Story, too. It sounds like you don't. Whenever we talk about it, it sounds like you don't. The thing about Marriage Story that, like, really gets me,

usually gets me when I watch it, but it doesn't always stay with me. And there's a lot of it, I think, that really works aggressively hard to sand down anything. thorny edge to that movie. I disagree. I disagree. All right. Thank you, Adam Sandler, and uncut gems. You disagree. I get it.

I'm going through my notes at this point. Iraq War. This would be a better TV show. Mystic River. Oh, the sun, the scene where the sun gets suspended from school, because he got into a fight with a boy and he's telling Ruffalo about it. And the whole crux of that story ends up being he got into a fight because the other kid wouldn't own up to the bad thing that he did.

So it, like, absolutely ties into the Mark Ruffalo's inner turmoil and struggle. I, like, got actively angry at the patness of that. I was just like, I can't believe that he's relating to the son's schoolyard bully story. Like, God damn it. I was so mad. I thought it was so stupid. Joaquin Jennifer Connolly's big fight, which I didn't think was very convincing. Oh, okay.

Yeah, she's basically asked to have a panic attack at the realization that her letting him out of the car to go collect or disperse fireflies is the thing that, you know, put him in the place to get hit by a car. that that was not great. I mean, you could, I feel like there's something, you could make, you could make something of that. Her guilt over a seemingly inconsequential decision that ultimately, you know,

butterfly affected its way, firefly affected its way into a tragedy. But, yeah, it's not a well-directed scene. It's not a well-scripted scene. So I want to, my last note here, I need to give a shout out to Linda Dano because Linda Dano's in this movie for like literally half a scene. I don't think she has any lines. She plays Jennifer Connolly's mother, and she sort of like ushers her out of a room when she's having a breakdown early on in the movie.

And literally, if you blinked and you would miss her. But Linda Dano is one of my favorite. We talk about soap opera people. Like she's one of my very, very favorite soap opera actresses of all time. She obviously was on my beloved Another World where she played romance novelist Felicia Galant, which was like, I love that there's a genre of television where like a just a major character is just a romance novelist who has like butch lesbian haircut, like power lesbian haircut, but is also like straight lady extraordinaire. Just like it's the wildness of soaps never fails to delight me. need more time in your day so that you can have a Soap's podcast.

It literally almost happened. It almost happened at one point. Who knows if it'll ever happen again. But she was also the co-host of a talk show in the 80s called Attitudes. Do you remember Attitudes at all? I do not, but I would absolutely watch it just by the title alone. Attitudes was like it was her and this other co-host. At one point it was Nancy Glass and then she was replaced by another sort of like

perky blonde, but it was like, it was as if Hoda and Kathy Lee were, but you replaced the wine with, um, uh, not quite uppers exactly, but just like, they were just like, they would stroll off the topic at whim and just like go to whatever. There was, uh, almost as iconic as attitudes. Oh, it was also on lifetime. That was the other thing. It was the daytime talk show on lifetime. So it was just like the very much like the television for women ethos of like 80s lifetime was them. And almost as famous as the show itself was the S&L sketch about it, where Norah Dunn played Linda Dano and Jan Hooks played whoever the blonde co-host was at that time.

And Nora Dunn plays Linda Dana with its very sort of like tented fingers and just sort of just like very like serious of just like, yeah, yeah, that's... Okay, now, John, John 3.7. For those of us who don't know football, which are a lot of us, who is that? Who is John 316? Yeah. Is he a quarterback? Is he a player? What?

No, it's the reason I do this. It's a verse from the Bible. Oh, the Bible. Best selling book ever. Old book. Yes. The Bible, it is. Old, old, very old, very good book.

Now, um... Uh, wow, wow. Like, it's very, like, you know, fascinated by any subject. Like, whatever is the last word in your sentence. She just sort of lingers on that is just like, wow, it really makes you think. And then the blonde is just like very sort of just like flights of fancy and whatever. It's one of those, I'm trying to describe the majesty of a summer morning to somebody who's never seen it before. It's just like, you have to see it to believe it.

Maybe there's clips on YouTube. I will try to put it on our Tumblr. I yelped when I saw Linda Dano because I just love her so much. She's the absolute greatest. So easily my favorite part of Reservation Road was the half a second that I saw Linda Dano. Because she's the best. Fantastic. Anything else that's on your...

No. Maybe we should move on to the IMDB game. Let's do that. Why don't you describe the IMDB game for a new year to our listeners? All right. As we always reserve the end of our episodes. The Reservation Road is the reservation we keep for our IMDB game. Every week, we end our episodes with it.

We challenge each other. with an actor or actress to try to guess the top four titles that IMDB says they are most known for. If any of these titles are television or voiceover work, we'll mention that up front. After two wrong guesses, we get the remaining titles release years as a clue. If that's not enough, it just becomes a free for all of hints. Sure does. That's the IMDB game. Chris, would you like to give or guess first? I think I'm going to be giving to you first.

Okay. In regards to of late, I have had the spirit of Christmas and the hope of a new year in my heart and I have gone easy on you. Oh, wow. So instead of any co-stars that we've mentioned or perhaps a Hollywood Film Award winner, I went down the road of the other road movie that this is confused for. I thought about Revolutionary Road. A performer in the film that I believe we have mentioned before as great in the film is one Miss Catherine Hahn. Oh, I love. Okay.

One of our greatest living actresses, Catherine Hahn. It's true. Famously, the first movie I ever saw her in was Reservation Road, which is so funny because, like, she's such a great comedic performer, and that movie is decidedly dramatic. I think part of the thing of Catherine Hahn is like she's so good at so many things, including being horny for Rachel Weiss on actress roundtables. I was just about to bring that up. So that thing on Twitter where somebody faves a tweet of yours from like a year or two ago, and you're just like, I'm glad that thing's still out there. And it was the screencap I made of the actress roundtable from 2018 where Rachel Weiss and Catherine Hahn flirt with each other throughout the. an entire roundtable in a way that is incredibly hot.

And, like, Catherine's touching Rachel's hair and, like, doing that thing where you're on a date and you find as many excuses to touch their hand as possible, like, one of those things. I was just so happy that Catherine Hahn was there, that she was included in this roundtable. For private life. Yep. She's fantastic in that movie. For the exquisite perfect film, private life.

Absolutely. Yes. So love Catherine. Han. Okay, is there any television? There is two television shows in her known for. Two television shows. Okay.

The thing about Catherine Hahn having two television shows is it really could be a lot of different things, because she's been in popular TV shows where she's had smaller roles, and then more obscure TV shows that she's had bigger roles. But I think one of them is going to be transparent.

Transparent, correct. Got an Emmy nomination at least one for that. She's amazing on that show. Maybe multiple Emmy nominations for that. Okay, so the other one I'm at a toss-up between her two sort of boutique TV shows, one of which was, I Love Dick on Amazon, and one of which was Mrs. Fletcher for HBO, which I watched Mrs. Fletcher. I still need to watch that.

She's great in it. And it's Tom Perada, so it's just like, it's really, like, well-observed, and I think it was underrated for what it did. A lot of people sort of, because it's about. her and she's empty nesting because her son has gone away to college and her son's an asshole. Like her son is a high school bully and goes away to college and is not equipped to deal with the fact that he's not cool anymore. Like one of those things where like college isn't as impressed by him as he is used to being.

And a lot of people were sort of like, I don't want to learn about this guy. This guy fucking sucks. I'm like, because he sucks, that's what that's what's interesting about. this. I was just like, anyway. I know people despised the Tom Perada book, but I think I've seen a couple people that were like, I hated the book, and I liked the show. I liked the show. It's not what was in one month, wasn't my favorite show of the year, but I really liked the show. Anyway, I think it's I love dick. It is not I love Dick. Fuck is it Mrs. Fletcher. It is not Mrs. Fletcher. Oh my God. Okay. Okay. So, um, I guess for TV, we've never really had to give years for TV. So I'll give the years it

ran and then the years of your movies. Okay. Okay. So the other television show ran from 2011 to 2012. Your movie years are 2013 and 2016. 2013 and 2016. So neither one of them is private life, which is not surprising because Netflix movies don't show up.

All right. 2013 and 2016. For the proof that they just float into the ether after they launch. All right. And then, so the TV show you said was 2011 to 2012. Yes. Is it that Hank Azaria sitcom she did on NBC that, like, lasted half a season? Obviously, you don't have to answer that.

If it is, I don't remember the title of it. So if it is, you have to tell me because I'll never get the title. You got it right. It's a show called Free Agents. Free agents. And Hank Azaria. Yep. That is bizarre that that that's on her.

IMDB. That like that got canceled in its first season. Okay. At least it made it past December and like rounded the corner into the new year. I think she's had a lot. She's been cast in a lot of shows that don't work. Like she was the lead in the absolutely fabulous US version, which I think was like the second time they tried to do it in US. It was. And I don't think the pilot ever officially aired, but it leaked online. It at least is online that you can see clips of it, and it is so bad. It was the second time that they had tried an absolutely fabulous thing, in addition to the fact that Sybil, the sitcom with Sybil Shepard and Christine Beransky, was essentially absolutely fabulous in America anyway. So, like, they've

really, really, really tried to make a go of absolutely fabulous in the United States. I think the one attempt was called High Society, and I think Gene Smart was one of the women, but anyway. Oh, wow. So your movies, you have two movies left, it's 2013. and 2016. My issue is, I think at least one of these is going to be one of those ensemble comedies where she's not the lead, but there's a lot of people in it. Oh, is one of them that indie that Jill Soloway directed that is called shit? That's another one where I'm blanking on the title. All right.

Is the other one Wanderlust? No, it is not Wanderlust. though I feel like I should give this to you because it is the Jill Soloway movie The movie is Afternoon Delight Part of the Juno Temple plays a baby prostitute cinematic universe Speaking of Juno Temple I finally listened to everybody in my life

Who said that Ted Lassow was good And so I started watching Ted Lassow And Juno is about sports, I can't do it It's charming And Juno Temple is lovely I don't like Sadecas. I do. Juno Temple being good in it is the

closest thing that anyone has gotten to telling me on watching that show. Also, the soccer men are so hot. Like, they're just so hot. They're not my type of guy. Oh, boy. More for me then. Okay, anyway. Okay, so 2016, absolutely stunning that you have not guessed this yet.

I'm sure listeners are screaming this. It's an obvious one. I think it's definitely I wouldn't say the most mainstream thing she's been in but like if you were going to say hey this actress to like your I don't know people who aren't like crazy like us

and watch like tiny things just because Catherine Hahn is in it okay I'm missing the forest for the trees is what you're saying um I think most everyday people would say this is what they know Catherine Hahn from. Is she the lead in it? No, but she's third-built.

She's third-built. Comedy. Yes. Good comedy. People would be mad at me for saying this, but no. Oh. Um... But it's like really well-like...

Attempted franchise, but not... like a superhero movie. Attempted franchise, but not a superhero. I'm pretty sure that they were going to do, like, they were going to do a whole, like, marketing blitz for this movie. After this movie outperformed expectations, there was going to be, like, branding, there was going to be wine for this cinematic franchise.

There was going to be, like, home products for this franchise. Is wine part of the, plot? No. The movie is sold on the title. Oh, it's Bad Moms. It is Bad Moms. Bad Moms. Not Bad Moms Christmas, but Bad Moms. Can I tell you I walked out of Bad Moms Christmas? I think you have told me that. I was, I should watch Bad Moms Christmas. I just hated Bad Moms so much. I, bad moms, I enjoyed bad moms well enough, but then I got really psyched for Bad Moms Christmas because of the casting of the moms. Right.

Um, and it was one of those where I had gone my, it was my annual, I'm going to go Christmas shopping and then sit in the movie theater at the mall, uh, with my Christmas bags. Um, and I did that for bad mom's Christmas and I was so psyched. And it was one of those movies where it's just like, I'm not enjoying myself at all. And also, I've got to get home and wrap all these presents. And I've got like, you know, all this shit to do. And I could, you know, sit through the rest of this movie. but it was just not doing it for me at all. And I was really bummed that it wasn't because I wanted more for it. Wow, yeah, bad moms. That's kind of a bummer. Justice for Catherine Hahn's known for we got to do better by Catherine Hahn.

Absolutely. All right. Well, I don't feel super bad that I missed bad moms because it does not stick out in my mind at all. But your clues were correct. Okay, so for you, I went the Jennifer Connolly route, and did pick a co-star from one of the films that we talked about. Oscar nominee for House of Sand and Fogg.

I am giving you Choray Agadashalut. Oh, okay. I don't think this is going to be difficult at all. Is there any TV? There's two TV. So, weirdly enough, both of the bars are TV. It's got to be the expanse in 24. One of the great swearing performances of our time, the expanse.

God, I love when she says the word fuck on that show. And... I don't even watch it. I just, like, secondhand watch it for my husband watching it. Oh, she swears so well. It's so wonderful. And then what's the other television? 24.

You're right. It is 24. 24, which also, she was on, like, the fourth season of 24, third or fourth season of 24. I think it was fourth, playing the mother of this young person who Jack Bauer probably thinks as a terrorist. But every time she would answer the phone. I'd fuck that show.

Every time she would answer the phone, she would say hello, like in this very, you know, which is just wonderful. All right. Well, and that was like, that was her prestige follow up to her Oscar nomination. It was. Yes. That was her cashing in on the Oscar nomination, which is too bad that she couldn't cash in in a film because, wonderful. Well, that's going to be one of my other guesses. Obviously, House of Sand and Fogg is in there.

Correct. She was in the nativity story Wait I just need to put pressure on you Because you're three for three And whenever I go three for three You put pressure on me that I couldn't have a perfect score I think I got it I think I got it

What It's the nativity story It is not the nativity story I thought she was like second build in that Yeah but nobody saw the nativity story Yeah Is that Nicky Caro? No, Catherine Hardwick.

Yes, it's a Catherine Hardwick movie. Yeah. Playing the mother of Mary, yes. Okay, so she's also played bureaucrats in things like X-Men movies. Wait, time out. Time out. Sorry. I don't mean to derail because I'm now looking at the cast of the nativity story. It's wild. It's Keisha Castle Hughes. It's Oscar Isaac. But also, there is a film out there that stars both short. Ariagadashlu and Heimabas, like, below my mind.

Like, my head just exploded. The possibilities, can you imagine the two of them just talking to each other? Just, like. It would sound so sexy. I would melt into the floor. Like, I need, please get, like, my dinner with Andre, but it's Heimabas and Shari Agadashulu, just chatting. Just let them talk.

I just want to hear them. They're the best voices. Heimabas is currently giving the best performance on television that no one is talking about in Rami. Yeah, she's great on that. She's great on that and she's great in succession. Like, she's having a really great moment right now. All right. Anyway, it was not Nativity Story, despite the fact that it has both Yamabas and Shuriga Dashaloo.

Okay, it's got to be something that she's some type of bureaucrat in. She's in the worst X-Men movie that I have seen and then I bailed. Well, last stand. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Is it that? No.

But not a bad guess. Okay, so what's my year? Oh, yeah, because you got too wrong. Your year is 2016. Oh, way more recent than I would have guessed. So this is going to be around the time that she is doing the expanse. I'll tell you, it's not Terry George's The Promise, which she's also in. We are pivoting to becoming a...

A, The Promise. We have talked about The Promise more times than it has ever been talked about, ever. Like, at some point, like, a poster of The Promise that is in a, like, basement somewhere, just went up in flames because we've talked about it. Because it has been invoked. Yeah. Okay, 2016, but not The Promise. She's also in a movie that played TIF that I remember just from the title, which is called September's of, Shiraz, which makes me just imagine, and I'm sure in this case, maybe it is not referring

to the wine, but like it makes me just imagine just like a wine mom, just like getting slashed on Shiraz for the entire... It should be Shorayatashlu's under the Tuscan Sun, where she just goes and does a wine tour. Salma Hayek, Adrian Brody, Shori Agadashulu. Like, wow. My sleep paralysis demons coming to visit. Okay, it's a movie about the Iranian Revolution, so not about wine moms in the suburbs.

So, yeah, probably not as lighthearted as its title suggests. Anyway. What a shame. I would watch that movie. Okay, 2016. I'm going to need some more hints, I think. Okay, well, you were on the right track with X-Men. So it's a franchise.

Yeah. A comic book franchise? No. It's not the MCU. She's not in the MCU. Right. Oh, but you said no to comic book franchise. Right.

Is it a fantasy franchise? Like Lord of the Rings. No. No, but she would have been great in Lord of the Rings. Oh, my God. Absolutely. Would have made me like them. So it's science fiction.

Yes. Oh, she. He is in Star Trek Beyond. Star Trek Beyond, yes. Star Trek Beyond kind of rules. I liked Star Trek beyond a lot. And I famously didn't hate the second Star Trek that everybody hated so much. I didn't like it that much, but like I didn't get the hatred for it.

I think a lot of the hatred for it came from the fact that they wouldn't just tell critics that it was con. And they got really mad at that. Well, they wouldn't do that. But then in the movie, he's so inconsequential and it's stupid. Even if you knew it, it would have been absolutely stupid. He does nothing in that movie. But, like, Star Trek Beyond is so much better and super fun. Well, Beyond is, like, keeps it true to, like, the Star Trek ethos and that it's very episodic.

Like, you can watch it without watching the other ones. And as with almost everything that, as I've mentioned before, Anton Yeltsin is in. I just cried and cried and cried when Anton Yeltsin's crying. came up in the credits at the end. Sophia Boutella is actually really cool. She is. Our leading Sophia Boutelle is. Yes, you kind of are.

I love her. Is she in climax? Yeah, I was going to say she's in climax. She's like the only watchable thing in the mummy. I've not seen the mummy. I did see climax. You are, though, our preeminent climax enthusiast, which I am. I'm very happy for you for that.

Yes, so I don't remember. I think she's just a bureaucrat. Her character's name is Commodore Paris. Yeah, absolutely. So that's an odd credit for her. There are other things that she's more prominent in. Even like if you're going to stick with television, like for as much as it's just a one episode, one-off, but like she's very funny on the episode of Will & Grace that she's

on, where she plays Grace's new assistant who just doesn't want to do her work. Like, and just like, it's very sort of like blaze about things and just sort of rolls over Grace and it's very funny. Yeah, she's great. She's the best. Show her rules. We love her. All right.

Yeah. Awesome. That's our episode on Revolutionary Road. At long last, we did it. So the circle is complete. And now our podcast ends. Just kidding. That's not.

We have too many other... Our last episode will be for your consideration. My God, that is true. That will be our last episode. That's how you'll know. That's how you know. A great Catherine Hahn performance in a bad movie. Anyway, that's the title of

that movie, right? The James L. Brooks movie? The James L. Brooks movie. How do you know? How do you know? That's how you know is a song from Enchanted. Thank you. 2007. Oscars. Yes. How do you know is a great Catherine Hahn performance in a bad movie? A movie that we could do an episode on. Yes. All right. That is our episode. If you want more of this at Oscar Buzz, you can check out the Tumblr at this had oscarbuzz.com. You should also follow

our Twitter account at had underscore Oscar underscore Buzz. Chris, where can the listeners find you in your stuff. On Twitter at Chrissy F-E-I-L and also letterbox under the same name. I am on Twitter at Joe Reed, Reed-spelled

R-E-I-D. I'm on letterboxed as Joe Reed, read spelled the same way. We would like to thank Kyle Cummings for his fantastic artwork and Dave Gonzalez and Gavin Muvius for their technical guidance. Please remember to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, wherever else you get podcasts.

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fireflies. Flying off. Into the night. Oh no. Here comes Mark Ruffalo. All right. I'd like to make myself a leap that planet Earth turns slowly. It's hard to say that I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep, because everything is never as it seems.