This Had Oscar Buzz - 132 – Promised Land

Episode Date: February 15, 2021

Most remembered as “that movie about fracking”, this week we are talking about 2012′s Promised Land. Originally developed and written by John Krasinski and Dave Eggers, the film began as a potential directing vehicle for Matt Damon before the star brought on his Good Will Hunting director Gus Van Sant to take the reins. Damon stars … Continue reading "132 – Promised Land"

Uh-oh, wrong house. No, the right house. I didn't get that! We want to talk to Marilyn Hacks. I'm from Canada, Water. going to put it to a vote in three weeks what the hell happened you were supposed to get in get up step i can handle this sir i know everything about your company know what you do you think you have what it's eggs to beat you yeah hey there she is you ready to go yeah this town this life

it's dying you all see it coming and you just don't get out of the way we're not fighting for land Steve we're fighting for people you're never going to get what you can came here to take from me. I don't even like the fact that you're here trying. You're a good man, Steve. I just wish you weren't doing this. Hello and welcome to the This Had Oscar Buzz podcast, the only podcast that has a line on getting share, her damn Picasso. 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 my friend who is also not talking about the fracking. Chris Fyle. Hello, Chris. I'm your friend who has a lighthouse in their photo. A telltale, never in Nebraska lighthouse. The layers of that reveal were maddening. I mean, it's a plot twist that doesn't serve its movie well.

But also, I mean, we'll get, we'll get into it for sure. But, like, it's not my only issues with this movie, but, like, hanging so much of it on that plot twist is a lot. But it's a lot. Whatever, whatever. We're talking about Promised Land this week, the 2012 anti-fracking movie Promise Land. So, of course, we have been making nonstop jokes about Peppermint and Bob the drag queen for the last several weeks. Did you see that article from Instinct magazine?

Oh, the Franken? No, no, not that. Oh. As we've been ramping up to this, which I love that, like, that is, that is, that is, now my cultural touchstone to fracking to this giant like sociopolitical issue

is not even just Rupal like Bob and Pepperman specifically. For listeners who are perhaps not homosexual or very on the internet, just Google Rupal fracking and be disappointed. Yeah, Rupal's fracking y'all

in Wyoming or something like that. Listen, RuPaul grew up on a, uh, in a farm town and saw that farm town devastated by economic downturn. And now RuPaul has no choice but to work for the fracking industry. And just trying to get everybody their money so that they can get out. It's, okay, here's the thing about Promise Land, which is like an issue movie like first and foremost. And fine. Like, that's a legitimate genre and whatever and there are good ones and bad ones and yada yada um but this one specifically

feels like an issue movie that didn't bother to wrap it up in anything else like normally it's you get an issue movie and it's like a character drama and i guess this is sort of a character drama for Matt Damon, but like, it's soft pedals it so much that it's very flimsy. It's just surfacy. It's just like really, really surfacy. And it's like, I think it's that, but it's also that you have, I mean, forgive me, a rather uncompelling performer doing that kind of character study pathos thing that I actually think is, could. be interesting and could be an interesting way to, like, talk about the complexities of fracking on, like, a cultural level and, like, what mindset gets behind this, right? But, like,

it's one of the flattest Matt Damon performances. I think Matt Damon is capable of doing really, really good stuff. I don't think he is at his, as in his nature, an uncompelling actor. Like, I think he's been very, very good in a lot of different types of things. This just not being one of them. But it does kind of hamper. a movie that has potential to be more sort of morally complicated than you're expecting going into a movie like this, where, like, the arguments for and against fracking and how those arguments would land with a small town sort of poised on the precipice of economic downturn or economic sort of ruin really that's interesting there are like multiple

little threads that you could sort of weave your way through that story with and the fact that like two people in those kind of economic situations there's maybe a trade-off to be made for you know, environmental long-term versus we're about to all go broke in the short term. Do you know what I mean? We're like, you could see where that would be an actual debate. My problem with this movie first and foremost is I don't think that debate rings true in any of this. Like, it reminded me the fact that like he's going door to door to try and sell this

obviously brings to mind something like Aaron Brockovich to me. Where, like, she also sort of, there's a, you know, so much of that movie is about her hustle, right? She's got to go. So what you're saying is, Promise Land, is what if Aaron Brockovich, if Aaron Brockovich worked for PG&E? Well, kind of. Yeah, right. It's like the opposite end of it. But also, the fact that, like, oh, I was going somewhere with that.

Now I've totally lost my train of thought because you've brought me down the Aaron Brockovich working for PG&E path. Every day is a winding road on this podcast. No, but the fact that, like, those, the people she's trying to sell in Aaron Brockovich on the PG&E lawsuit all have their own angle on it. And some of them need money right now. And some of them are more into making PG&E pay the big bucks. And some of them are more like, you know, my economic needs are now. And you get that in a lot of those big sort of town scenes and the scenes where she's really trying to sell like Cherry Jones on this. or whatever. And I feel like there's potential in Promise Land to talk about that kind of stuff. And the fact that like the Scoot McNary character is antagonistic to him and the Rosemary DeWitt character is more inclined to it. And I feel like if you had sort of made those characters more central to the plot and really made the town's reaction to it feel more organic and feel more. Like, my,

My big sticking point with this movie is, I don't think this town embraces the John Krasinski character at all, like in a real-life situation. Like, even on his face, even before the twist of the movie happens, this sort of, like, college bro-looking, Henley-wearing, clean-cut, whatever, environmentalist rolling into town and telling you, don't take this. million-dollar, you know, pennies from heaven deal or whatever, that to me is just like, they'd have rode that guy out on a rail. I don't care how game he is to sing Bruce Springsteen at the bar. Do you know what I mean? Like, none of that felt genuine to me. And it kind of

puts this giant crater at the center of the movie. Yeah, I agree with that. I think it's also kind of fundamentally flawed because the movie take, the way that it takes the angle that it does, it kind of thinks that the people who are selling the small townspeople on fracking are more interesting than the small townspeople kind of grappling or considering it. Because, like, that's probably the movie I would be more interested in seeing, and I think it's the version of Promised Land, that would be a better movie. Yeah, I think when you decide to make the anti-fraking movie from the perspective of the fracking company executive who sees the light,

you're maybe not getting off on the right foot. I also very predictably want this movie to be more about the Rosemary DeWitt character because I always want the movies to be more about the Rosemary DeWitt characters. They really try to sell this flirtation romance on just like one night at the bar, right? And then she drops out of the movie for half hour or 45 minutes maybe.

But that scene works because she's so, like, she's good at that kind of thing, right? And so I think, and I think there's pretty good chemistry between the two of them. And, but yeah, you're right. Then all of a sudden, it's just like, well, that, she's interesting because she's part of his rivalry with Krasinski's character. This is the, it's also a pretty bafflingly cast movie as far as, like, it's so

weird to see Francis McDormand playing the fracking company employee rather than like, because we've gotten so used to, especially in the last maybe like, you know, five to eight years of her career, her playing these like real hard ass salt of the earth, like pissed off characters, right? And it's just so weird to be like, oh, she's the inauthentic one. She's the one who has to like go to the local store to like camouflage herself in small town drag. And it's just like that's sort of like she's trying to become a Francis McDormant character, I guess. She's trying to, like, maybe if somebody had just been like, no, be like a Francis McDormon character. And she's like, oh, okay.

And I also think casting, again, casting Krasinski, who I don't hate, like, it seems like a lot of people hate John Krasinski and like, whatever, that's fine. I think there were a lot of sort of like, I'm going to take the alt angle on the office and be like, Jim is smug. And it's just like, okay, whatever. But he's way too smug for this movie, for this role, to, like, for that to me. makes sense. Like, it sets you up for the twist at the end, for sure. But, like, it... The twist where he goes full Bond villain and explained everything about it in a way that it's like, okay, well, he just lost his job for telling him all of those things. I mean, I guess, I guess... Good for that, because he's evil. I sort of take it as almost just like, like, a corporate rival

flex, where it's just like, I just, like, did your job better than you did your job and whatever. And But it's just like, again, everything leading up to that, where he's supposed to be like the, you know, humble environmentalist who wins the town over. I'm just like, I don't see him winning this town over. Like, I see this town, like, instinctively loathing this guy and riding him out on a rail. Like, it's not like environmentalists are a great cell or an easy sell for, you know, small town farmers anyway, right? So, I don't know. It also has this like sheen of like trying, I mean like it's cliche to say capra-esque, but like you can kind of feel this movie reaching for a certain type of like maybe Capra, like Americana of like glossing over things that feels like, for lack of a better word, inauthentic, it feels like people's vision of what like small town American life is like rather than, I don't know, I thought a lot about. like other filmmakers what they could who could have done a movie like this and make it actually

feel like a small town not like our rose-tinted glasses version of a small American town like someone like Deborah Granick or you know like that type of film I get what you're saying I always find that to be sort of a slippery slope argument for me to make because a I don't know what a small American town feels like in my bones you know what I mean so I feel like sometimes I think the temptation to be like, this is real and this is less real because this looks like grittier and this looks like has more of a sheen. And I'm just like, I don't know that Deborah Granick isn't as phony as any other, you know, filmmaker who's coming into a town. What we were presented in this movie felt incredibly phony. It definitely felt

like it was telling the story from the perspective of the corporate people because those are the people that this that they do you know and and that again isn't maybe the the the tack to take when your moral is I'm going to side with the good sort of salt of the earth people of small town Pennsylvania and yeah it and again it's a pretty watchable movie as it goes. Like, it goes down easy. I think that's maybe part of the problem of the movie is it goes down a little too easy. Yeah. But it's like, it's thankfully not very long. I wasn't clawing my face off watching this. Ultimately, if I have to watch, you know, Francis McDormand and Matt Damon and Rosemary DeWitt and Hal Holbrook do their thing, it's just

like, that's fine. Like, that's, I'm not going to, you know, object to that in any way. But it, you get immediately why this movie was greeted with kind of of a half of a smile wave of the hand sort of just like yeah whatever sure um and ultimately that's what sealed its fate as an oscar play is that like it waited so late in the year to open it opened uh in like a qualifying release after christmas yeah yeah and then that kind of a movie if that movie gets a kind of like a polite sort of you know quarter smile response that you're dead in the water. I don't care if you are Matt Damon and Cuss Van Sant and whatever. So, yeah. So, okay, this being a Matt Damon movie, Chris, we should mention before we get too far along,

this is Matt Damon's asterisky six-timers club entry into our podcast. Yeah, the sixth Matt Damon. Okay, so we have argued about this for, and we can't remember what we just So we will say definitively now. Yes. We have argued that there are two movies that we have done, that you could say, this is our seventh Matt Damon. One of them is finding Forrester where he is in a scene and not like interstellar in a scene. Right. It's like a full like blink and you'll miss it cameo.

Yeah. And then the majestic he, is it a full of, I can't remember anything from that god awful movie. Is he just a voiceover the whole movie or just like the letter at the end? I don't think he narrates the whole movie. I think it's just towards the end. But I could be wrong. It's not like Jim Carrey Simon Birch situation. Right.

Or like Alec Baldwin in the Royal Ten of Bombs or something like that. So those are going to count as one. Right. My whole thing has always been, it feels weird to say Matt Damon's a six-timer when two of them are movies he's barely in-in. This goes back to my whole Jude Law wasn't really in six movies. in 2004. Heard he was, but like two of them are real asterisky. Do you know what I mean? I feel weird about it. So I am nothing, if not pedantically consistent. So, uh, so we're going to take the occasion of Promised Land to celebrate Matt Damon six asterisk timer, uh, this had Oscar buzz entry.

So as we have done with our previous six timers, uh, Merrill Streep, Claire Danes, Naomi Watts, Dermit Mulroney We didn't actually do it for Anthony Hopkins Although we could and probably should have But next time we do Anthony Hopkins we'll make up for it Exactly So as we've done with all of those I made up a little quiz for you Chris

About the six What I'm doing for the sake of this is I'm counting Finding Forrester I'm not counting the majestic So I'm going to give you a quiz Where the answers will be Some combination of courage Under Fire, Suburicon, All the Pretty Horses, Finding Forrester, The Rainmaker, and Promise Land,

which are the six official, according to me, Matt Damon movies that we have done. Bless you for not making me a face plant by trying to remember The Majestic. We already can't remember how much of a voiceover Matt Damon does in it. That's enough trivia about that film, so yes. Okay. all right so this is yeah this is just you know basic kind of stuff whatever so all right matt damon quiz begins now which is the one which is the only one of those six movies that was released pre-september in its year um courage under fire indeed courage under fire was released in

i believe july yes or like may june something like that yes uh right which two films were released Paramount. Suburicon and the rainmaker? Correct. Suburicon and the rainmaker. All right. Which one made the most money? Okay, so... This is all worldwide. I don't think it matters either way, but I'm counting worldwide.

Like, one of them is significantly the most. See, you would think it is the Rainmaker because, like, John Grisham movies made money, but, like, We talked about that in our episode. It surprisingly didn't make that much money. It's definitely not Superbacon. It's definitely not Promised Land. Could be Courage Under Fire.

I don't think it's Finding Forrester. What movie am I forgetting already after you just listed them to me? What are the middle ones after Courage Under Fire, Suburban Khan? All the Pretty Horses. Not that. Promise Land, did you just say? Yeah, I did. Okay.

Is it Courage on? Underfire. It is. Courage Under Fire made a worldwide gross of $100.9 million. The surprising one here to me is that Finding Forrester made globally $80 million. Oh, wow. Well, see, the thing is, I think that it got decent reviews, and that probably had, you know, the widest release, at least. Yeah, of the non-Courage Underfire ones.

That is probably true. All right. So, which one made the least money? Is it Suburicon? It's not. Is it Promised Land? It's Promised Land, but, like, barely. Promised Land made $12.3 million.

Suburicon was 12.8. Wow. Yes. All right. Which is the longest in running time? All the Pretty Horses. No, surprisingly. Hmm.

All the Pretty Horses. No, it's the Rainmaker. A scant 117 for all the pretty horses. The rainmaker... Yeah, and it was originally like four hours long, yes. The rainmaker is the second longest by one minute. Courage under fire? Nope.

Finding Forrester. Okay. Finding Forrester clocks in at 136 minutes. The rainmaker is 135. Which, but if you count as like by subplot, Finding Forrester only really has one plot, and the rainmaker has... Ten. A million plus. Yeah. All right. Which one features a score by Alexandra Displah?

Suburicon. Suburicon. I would not have remembered that. Very good job. All right. Which one features cinematography by Roger Deacons? All the Pretty Horses? No. All the Pretty Horses. Courage Under Fire. Yes. Courage Under Fire. Cinematography by Roger Deacons. There have been some, the Matt Damon ones we have talked about have had pretty good cinematographer creds. Harris Savita's on Finding Forrester, John Toll on the Rainmaker, Linus Sandgren, did Promise Land, which I don't really have any notes on the cinematography of Promise Land, but like I like Linus Sandgren a lot as a cinematographer. Yeah. Um, blah, blah, blah, blah, okay.

Which was the most recent to be a Blockbuster Award nominee? all the pretty horses yes all the pretty horses I think that I think all of the early ones Courage under fire the rainmaker and then all the pretty horses

were all blockbuster nominees all the pretty horses was the most recent was nominated for best actor and best actress in a romance slash drama for Matt Damon and Penelope Cruz

so there's that you know the kids those days they loved all the pretty horses He loved renting all the pretty horses when Aaron Brockovich was all rented out. Yes. Which two were nominated for the USC Scripter Screenplay Prize? So that has to be adapted from a text. I'm going to say one of them is all the pretty horses and the Rainmaker?

Very good. All the Pretty Horses and the Rainmaker, both nominated for the USC Scripter Prize. Yeah. Well done. All right. Which two played in competition at the Berlin Film Festival? All the pretty horses and promised land? Nope. Promised land, definitely one of them. The Rainmaker. Nope.

Damn it. Finding Forrester. Yes, Finding Forrester. Finding Forster, like, he didn't win a prize for Finding Forrester, but I think Gus Fancent won, like, a maybe, like, lifetime achievement where some kind of, like, special prize. Of the Gus Van Sance with Matt Damon, too. Yes. Yes. Which was the only one to be nominated for a Golden Globe for acting? And who was it for?

No, it was for John Voigt for The Rainmaker. Yes, very good. John Voight and the Rainmaker. You are killing this one. All right. Which one opened in wide release the same weekend as Saved The Last Dance. Finding Forrester.

Yes, Finding Forrester. Very good. Julia Stiles was also the Man Now Dog. That little hop? I mean, that's when she became the Man Now Dog. Exactly. All right. And the last question that I have,

which one opened in wide release on the same weekend as Harriet the Spy? Okay, so this would be mid-90s. It's either the Rainmaker or Courage Under Fire, but I'm going to say the Rainmaker. I really wanted you to end on a winning note, but it is not. It is Courage Under Fire. Damn. Imagine rolling up to your multiplex that weekend and seeing the decision to be made between Courage Under Fire and Harriet the Spy. I want to know somebody who was like torn.

Meg Ryan or Rosie O'Donnell. Which one? Which to choose, exactly. Iconic Michelle Tractonberg vehicle, Harriet the Spy. Very well done, Chris. You have, I've decided. that you have aced the Matt Damon quiz. I am shocked that I remember

that much from our previous episodes. Usually I bombed these. I love that I basically got an A minus on Matt Damon and probably a C minus on Merrill. Yeah, yeah. Think about that. Sit with that one in your life. Yeah. The tales of your incompetence do not

interest me. This also was Matt Damon deciding to, he almost directed this movie, which we'll probably talk about more, but deciding to have his kind of of Oscar play movie come out in the season of Ben Affleck having his like tumultuous Argo year where so much of that year felt like we're temperature checking how's Ben Affleck doing right now because after I'll never forget it we've probably talked about this before

but the fact that um was it the critics choice awards the night of the Oscar Oscar nomination morning happens. Ben Affleck is like shockingly left off of the best director lineup for Argo. Nobody, everybody thought he was a shoe in for that, including me. It doesn't happen. That night is the Critics Awards. And the mood around that night felt so funereal where it's just like, how's he holding up? Do you think he's okay?

Because then immediately, after the Oscar nominations happen, he wins best director at Critics' Choice, right? Like, and so it's like, everything that happens for the rest of award season happens as if he would, he did get a best director nomination because like Argo just kept moving forward and the perceptions had to sort of like catch up to the fact that like, oh, that snub didn't mean anything in terms of Argo still winning best picture. But in that moment, everybody was just like, oh, what a weird thing for Ben Affling. Oh, he must be feeling so strange. He gets the big snub, and then he wins, and now he's got to talk to people? Do you think he's okay? Like, did you see his face? There was a little bit of rubbernecking towards the slightly gringy side of it.

Yes, but, like, but that continued throughout all of the award season was there's this push-pull of, like, a little bit of rubbernecking, but also a little bit of just, like, pop-timism, like, bad-half-like populism, where it's just, like, good for him. Oh, he won the Golden Globe. Good for him. I'm glad. Well, because that critic's choice, I might be misremember. that they gave him a standing ovation which is hilarious if so.

But his speech had this thing of like, okay, I've got something to say. Like, you know. Yeah. Well, and then... Because everybody in the room knew... And that tone sort of persisted through his Oscar speech for when Argo wins Best Picture

at the Oscars. I watch it more often than I watch something that I don't Like, it's not like I love it. Like, I love, like, Julia Roberts's Oscar speech or something like that. But it's so fascinating as to, like, it's determination to tell the Ben Affleck story in, like, under five minutes, right? Where he's just, like, he's talking about facing adversity. And, like, when he's talking about facing adversity, he means, remember when the press dumped all over me for having a relationship with Jennifer Lopez.

Like, that's what he's talking about. And it's weird that, like, and it's like, it's not untrue. Like, he did kind of get, like, the industry did kind of sort of turn up their nose at him for a while because of that. So it's not untrue, but it's also kind of like a goche thing to talk about, especially as you're, like, currently at the top of the heap. Remember when I faced adversity when I wasn't nominated for Best Director? Also that, right.

And then at the same speech, it's also the speech where he talks about how his marriage to Jennifer Garner is such hard work. And it, like, it's wrapped in the guise of a compliment, but it's worth. worded so peculiarly, and, you know, interest in his romantic life has always been sort of at a fever pitch anyway. So, of course, everybody read into that. And that marriage ultimately, you know, doesn't last, as we all know. Jennifer Garner refuses to be The Ashes. The Ashes. Celine Dion's song from Deadpool 2, Ashes, is about Jennifer.

Famously, yes. So, yeah, so, you know, Matt Damon and Gus Van Gogh. Sant sort of bringing the band back together in the year of Argo is always really kind of interesting to me. There's a lot of interconnectedness with the cast of this movie. I've always, I don't know why I find this interesting, and it ultimately isn't that interesting. But like, this is, so this movie comes out the same year that your sister's sister comes out, right? Your sister's played at Toronto in 2011, but it's a 2012 movie. So in that movie, John Krasinski's wife, Emily Blunt, co-stars with Rosemary DeWitt. The year before Promised Land is the Adjustment Bureau, which is Matt Damon and Emily Blunt. So then Promised Land is Matt Damon and Krasinski

together, along with Rosemary DeWitt. Rosemary DeWitt, who played Ben Affleck's wife, I'm pretty sure, in The Company Men. It's just an odd little, like, thing where I remember at the time being like, oh, I bet they all just like get together for dinner a bunch. Like all these couple, like Damon and his wife, Krasinski and Blunt, Rosemary DeWitt and Ron Livingston, you know, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner. It always felt like they were all

sort of like swirling around each other's movies, Garner, and, well, this would be later, but Garner and DeWitt are both in men, women, and children. Matt Damon and Rosemary DeWitt are both in Marguerette. Krasinski and Blunt beyond being married are both in the Muppets that same year. So like it was an odd little

confluence of the universe that I always that's one of the first things I think about when I think about Promise Land weirdly enough that it is just a connective fiber yeah not a movie yeah sort of well okay so I maybe we should do the 60 second plot description before we get into like the Genesis creation of this movie

because the passing of hands for this movie feels like they were playing hot potato or something like I have this idea I don't know if I finally like it, but here, you take this. Yeah. Yes. Let's do the plot description because, yeah, it's a good way of framing that. All right. So, before we do the plot description, I'm just going to give up the basics. We're talking about promised land, the 2012, 2012 film Promised Land, directed by Gus Van Sant, written by Matt Damon and John Krasinski, based on a story

by Dave Eggers, starring Matt Damon, John Krasinski, Francis McDormand, Rosemary DeWitt, Hal Holbrook, Titus Welliver, Scoot McNary, Terry. Kinney and Lucas Black. It premiered in a qualifying run on December 28th, 2012. It then, like, rolled out through the beginning of 2013. It's one of those movies that, like, played the Berlin Film Festival in February of 2013 after it premiered in the United States. It's an odd, odd rollout for this movie.

But, yeah, Chris, do you want to spend 60 seconds telling our listeners, about promise land. All right, hold on. Sure. Why not? All right. Gus Van Sance, Matt Damon's, John Cresensky's Dave Eggers' promised land. Exactly.

Are you ready, sir? Sure. All right. Your 60 seconds begins now. Guess who's frack in the house? It's none other than Matt Damon playing Steve, who is a salesman for a multi-billion dollar fracking company. He has a partner played by Francis McDormand.

her name is Sue. They descend on this small town because they want to frack there and make some money. The townspeople initially don't meet them so well. Some of them do until Hal Holbrook shows up at a town meeting and says, hey, guys, do you know what fracking is? It is bad. And then other people think that it's bad. John Krasinski shows up as an environmentalist. He sings Bruce Spring Cena karaoke and makes everybody like him. And then the town is kind of against them, but they still are getting people to do fracking. there's going to be a big town meeting, but then John Krasinski puts out this whole backstory of his, and Matt Damon finds out that it is a lie because he can see a lighthouse in the back of this photo of farm that John Krasinski said he was. He confronts John Krasinski. He's like, yes, you're right. I am working for your rival. This has all been a sham.

And then Matt Damon sees like the error in fracking and basically unveils all of this and tells people to vote how they want at this town meeting. And then he, I guess, dates Rosemary DeWitt. Yeah, sticks around in town, dates Rosemary DeWitt. One thing I wanted to sort of correct, though, in that, it's not that Krasinski is working for Matt Damon's rival. It's he's working for Matt Damon's company. Oh, wait. They pulled, like, the rope-a-dope on him,

where, like, Krasinski comes in, plays the environmentalist, then sets up his own reveal as a sham in order to make global look good. Why did I think Global was a different company? It's not. Global is the company that Matt Damon works for. So basically, after Matt Damon had that disastrous town meeting where Hal Holbrook essentially sons him, the company sent in John Krasinski under the guise of being an environmentalist to, like, poison the well, as it were, for the anti-fraking cause in the town. To intentionally disseminate misinformation. See, this is the point.

part of the movie where it's like, the movie is so placid, then this whole John Krasinski reveal is like confusing because there's nothing going on in this movie. And then all of a sudden there's this double, triple cross. Right. Well, the movie does not set you up. It's not about corporate intrigue at all until that moment. So you're not really prepared for this to be that kind of a movie. So all of a sudden, it just sort of plays as this like odd little deus ex machina where it's just like, oh, okay. So now all of a sudden this is about corporate underhandedness and Matt Damon getting like shived for you know business reasons or whatever and right it's not the perils of fracking you know it's not earth and water on fire that

makes him turn his back on fracking it's that he works for an underhanded company also like this company is fully wild for the fact that like Krasinski tells all to Matt Damon essentially is like you've been played for a fool, my friend, by your own, you know, by our shared employers. But the fact that they still send in Matt Damon to that little town meeting the next day where Matt Damon has his like change of heart and tells the town to like stick to its guns or whatever. The fact that Global didn't like send him home after that reveal from Krasinski and have Francis McDormand do that presentation is truly insane and wild that they we're just like, oh, this guy that we've totally, like, humiliated, we're going to send him

into, and hopefully he will continue to tow the company line. And it's just like, you big fucking dummies, like, it just doesn't make a ton of sense. Whatever. I sound like cinema sins now, but like, it's just like, it goes to like baseline believability, which I think this movie has a problem with on a lot of levels. But, yeah, so talk a little bit about how... The hot potato-ness. Yeah, well, this is part of that. This movie is a part of that. This movie, sort of starts out, I guess, based on a story by Dave Eggers. But like, Dave Eggers isn't even, like, this isn't even credited as an adaptation. So, like, clearly the, the inspiredness. He was approached by John Krasinski to, like, create something like this. I assume through involvement of a way we go. You didn't talk about a way we go's relationship to this movie, but it is there. It's true. Yeah, it's the Krasinski and Eggers of it. A way we go, a movie I love. I do too. Dave Eggers doesn't really stay on beyond a story development for the movie, and they bring it to Matt Damon to potentially write a screenplay.

Damon decides he's going to direct it. Meanwhile, Krasinski and Damon are collaborating on the screenplay. Damon can't direct it. Damon recruits Gus Van Sant. Right. His old Goodwill Hunting pal. And I mean, like, we're the dumb-dums who have a podcast. We don't make movies.

I'm sure there's plenty of movies that are made in this way, you know, of a passing of hands of, like, recruiting people who you have collaborated with or have a relationship with to, like, tell a story. But it really feels like in, like, this movie's narrative, it's, like, people passing it on, like, wanting to be involved would be like, no, but you do it. I was trying to figure out what movie, because Matt Damon passed on directing it because he ultimately ended up with a conference. for a movie he was filming. My guess is, because it would have taken a long time to film it, my guess is this movie is Elysium, which makes it even kind of funnier, but I have no actual proof that that's the thing. Elysium had reshoots, and I'm pretty sure the Adjustment Bureau had reshoots. Right, Adjustment Bureau is the year before Promised Land, and Elysium is the year after.

Because its release date was pushed, and I think they overhauled the movie. So depending on what end of things that these delays, happened. One of those two, I think, is probably the safe bet. So, yeah. And interestingly enough, the fact that, like, this was setting up to be Matt Damon's directorial debut, it's been nine years since then, and he hasn't directed anything else. I wonder if he sort of, like, maybe took a step back and was just like, maybe this isn't something I want to do. Which, honestly, kudos. Like, I feel like maybe more people should, like, there's something of a, not always, there's a lot of actors who make very, very good directors.

But there is something of a, what is it, the Peter principle, where you rise to the level of your own incompetence, which sounds so mean, but it basically means just like you keep advancing to the point where you get to the job that you can't do very well. And then, like, you should, like, stop one level before that. And sometimes, and, like, I relate to that shit. It comes for all of us. Yeah.

But, like, I kind of good for Matt Damon. If he decided that, like, you know what, I feel like I'm an actor, first and foremost. But it is interesting that, like, because his big breakthrough was Goodwill Hunting of film, that he essentially, you know, there's all this talk about, like, how much, you know, did Guff's Van Sant actually, you know, sort of handhold those boys along or whatever. But, like, that's their authorial vision, right? That movie was basically essentially credited to them as a, you know, that was their movie. And it's surprising that he never did sort of, like, level back up again.

again to uh he hasn't even like written that many scripts since goodwill hunting actually like it's just goodwill hunting he's got a screenplay credit for jerry even though i'm pretty sure that's just like most of that movie was improvised right so like that's what that credit comes from uh also gus fanzand and then promise land and then now he's got something in post production called the last dual the ridley scott movie that he and ben afleck and they both did the screenplay which is well who did the polish on it because A female writer was also brought on... Nicole Hollifsonor.

Oh, Jesus. No. Of course I couldn't remember it's Nicole Hollif Center. I blocked that out of my mind. That is a movie where it's just like, it's Ridley Scott who like, I have my ups and downs with Ridley Scott, but it's still like, it's a major thing. It's Damon and Affleck together, who again, don't always love, but it's fascinating. It's Adam Driver and Jody Comer are also both in this movie and like Harriet Walter. Like, the cast is really, really fantastic.

I'm fascinated by it, but also I dread it so much. I definitely want to see Nicole Hollif Center's early centuries epic battle movie, but I want it to be her movie, you know. Yeah. Well, this is her doing a polish on a Matt Damon-Ben-Aflict script. I just let her do what she wants to do. I don't know if I want to see the Nicole Hall of Center, Ridney's Ridley Scott movie. Yeah. The unimpeachable Nicole Hall of Center.

Yeah. Let her do what she wants to do. It definitely feels like that's a, you know, a work-for-hire thing for her. It doesn't feel like if that movie is bad, it's certainly not going to get hung up on Nicole Hollop's Center. But that's also the movie that everybody got mad at because the log line is that like these two... It's a war started by a rape or something. It's a king and a knight, and they decide to have a duel over the rape of one of their wives. And it's just like, oh, we're still doing this.

We're still doing rape as a plot device. It's just like, cool, cool, cool, cool. It's also the movie with the on-set photos that are utterly hilarious, where Adam Driver looks like Warrior Jesus. He does. He really, really does. Matt Damon has, like, a soul patch, and it's dyed completely blonde or something. Yes. It's, yeah, go look up the one cast photo of it, where it does it.

Matt Damon looks like, almost like a monk, like, that you would, like, call in to... I'm pretty sure he has a bowl cut. It's weird. It's all weird. And yet, like, Adam Driver at the same time, it's just, like, luxurious flowing locks, yada, yada, yada. This is really what, why I want Nicole Hollif Center to be free of this movie for, because I'm prepared to... I feel like you're more invested in Nicole Hollif Center's presence in this movie than you need to be. Like, I honestly feel like this was probably a...

a week and a half's worth of just like, all right, whatever. Like, let me fix whatever they've decided to do to this. She's staying booked and busy, and that's great. Yes, very good. Good for her. Anyway, back to promised land. Yeah. Back to promised land, which is a movie about me showing up at a movie theater, and they play

the wrong Robin Wright movie, and I go to the usher and I say, I was promised land. Oh, my God. Shut up. I hate you so much. In the aftertimes when I'm back in movie. when we're all back, when we're all allowed back in the movies again. We talked about how much I want this movie to be about Rosemary DeWitt's character. I also really enjoyed the two big Hell Holbrook scenes in it.

Yeah, Hal Holbrook's really good in this. I feel like that's sort of where the movie maybe finds its heart. I think Rosemary DeWitt's where the movie could have taken a different path and been better. I think Hell Holbrook are the moments where the movie feels really in the pocket, like it's doing what it's supposed to be doing. and that's good And not just because of the performance Like Rosemary DeWitt seems like

That is fully just the performance That character is nothing Right But she is great So she makes it incredibly watchable Yes Yeah I think the Holbrook character Those are the parts where it seems

Like well conceived Again you talk about like characters I would have maybe wanted this movie to be about Like they give for a second They sort of give his bio And that like he's like a former like MIT professor or something like that. Like he's like really like knows his shit and he's retired and he's basically just sort of

like teaching in his free time at the local high school. And like that's a character I want. He also has this thing where he says something that like was more relatable to me that it should be, but we're living in troubled times where he's like, I, I, the difference between me and the people in this town who maybe want to take this deal is, I'm old enough to know that I'll probably die before. I have a chance of dying before, before essentially like this all goes bad, essentially.

Like, I'll die with my, with my morals intact or something like that. And I was just like, oh, I find myself thinking that more and more where it's just like, wow. Like, hopefully, like, by the time this planet, like, rolls off this mortal coil, I'll be dead and that'll be good. and, or like by the time, like, America, like, fully, like, sinks into the sea of authoritarianism. I'm just like, well, maybe I'll be dead by then, so, like, whatever. And I probably related too much to what hell Holbrook was saying in those scenes. But he wants it to be preserved. He says, I may be dying, but he doesn't want to, like.

Right. He wants, you know, yeah. Yes. But it also has that sense of inevitability of just, like, I know the way things are going. I know we're being faced with between a choice of the economy is going to fall apart or the environment around here is going to fall apart and what do we decide to choose. And he's just like, ultimately, I have at least the comfort of being like, whatever I choose, I'll probably be dead before the worst happens anyway. So it was dark thought, but it was a thought for sure. Yeah. So beyond just sort of what this movie is and what it sort of does and doesn't do well, the release of this movie, this is a focus movie. This is a focus features movie. The release of this movie is pretty baffling or at least like in hindsight pretty ill-conceived. The fact that seemingly rather than like decide to hold off on it and make it a 20.

2013 release and sort of, you know... Hold off on it and take it to Sundance. Take it to Sundance. Take it to, you know, maybe even the fall festivals or something like that. Yeah, something where it can like, if it's good, which ultimately I don't think, I don't think there's a universe in which this movie does well anyway, because I think a festival rollout, it'll end up, like, getting picked apart the same way, right? Right. But to release this thing with a qualifying release on December 28th, then hold off on it for basically a another month before anybody sees it and by this time like you look at the stuff that got released

in the last month of 2012 and it's like zero dark 30 jango unchained lim miserab and even stuff like the impossible and this is 40 and this is 40 like the oscar conversation that is happening while promised land is still sitting on the shelf like things are really really firming up and already there was stuff like, obviously, Argo and Lincoln and Life of Pie, which had opened in October and November of the year, like, by the time Promise Land got seen by anybody, that Oscar lineup is pretty well, like, locked in.

Like, Zero Dark 30 is the latebreaker, pretty much. And, like... It's a way more formidable movie than this one, because here's what I do think a scenario is, again, I am a simp, I am not a filmmaker, But they filmed this movie in the April of 2012 and released it in December. So they rushed this movie. Right.

Like, you could have had more post-production time. You could kind of fine-tune the beats of the movie to make a better movie. Yeah. Like, I, yeah, and I'm not quite sure what the, you know, what the impetus to rush it out was. But, okay, like, you know, you tried it. I mean, I guess maybe in that, like, maybe they thought people were more primed to accept it because it was an election here, even if it was after an election. I don't know. Yeah.

So the other focus movies this year, they had a lot of, like, co-production. So maybe it's like they wanted something that this was, like, sort of all on their own because they were, they had a co-production on Anna Karenina and on, well. Hyde Park on Hudson. The ill-conceived and ill-received Hyde Park on Hudson. And Moonrise Kingdom. Moonrise Kingdom and Anna Karenina were both sort of better placed within the awards conversation of 2012. And they didn't really start pushing Moonrise Kingdom until pretty late

as their other things were kind of falling off. And I guess we can assume that like they knew Promised Land might not be the right yeah um because even Anna Karenina like we're two people that love that movie but that's not a universally um accepted or and yeah there are detractors for sure for Anna Karenina um wrong as they are and maybe they're looking ahead at 2013 and being like look we're really they because 2013 they have an Oscar contender in the spring that year they have the place beyond the pines and that's so if you're looking to push promised land you do

don't want to put it into the spring because you've got something there that you want to sort of give room to grow. And then you've got, ultimately, they end up having Dallas Buyers Club for the fall, which probably wasn't already placed there by this point in the calendar. But like, I remember a year ahead, people were like, keep an eye out for Dallas Buyers Club. So like, they definitely had their eye on it. And again, you know, we're not in these, these conversations. But, like, I think the calendaring of these movies for these, especially these sort of, like, dependent mid-major studios, is really interesting. And, you know, to be a fly on the wall, and those conversations would be interesting. That whole last week of after Christmas before New Year's, in terms of a release date for movies that have been successful with Oscar, it's like...

Yeah. In the early 2000s, there was a lot of movies. I think, like, the hours wasn't, didn't open until, like, December 28th of its year or something like that. And there were movies that were successful doing that as a strategy. And it took a while for a lot of these distributors to realize that was more of an anomaly than a trend. And there's been a lot of movies that have kind of face planted from that. I think of, like, a most violent year. Yes.

I think a lot of movie studios were emboldened by, million dollar baby coming out at the very very last second in 2004 and winning best picture and it's just like oh you can do that you can just sort of like you can come out at the exact last minute and you're the last thing everybody sees and everybody's talking about you and everybody's sort of you know charmed by you and that will like carry you through and you hit that timing just right and it's like that definitely is the best case scenario but in many of many, many other cases, especially now that, like, precursor season seems to be getting more and more prominent, like, that field starts to firm up quicker than you think. And if you're

waiting until December 28th to even, like, you know, make your limited New York and L.A. premiere or whatever, like, those best picture slots in 2012 were kind of spoken for. The one area where it did get kind of bailed out, though, is it shows up on the National Border Review top 10 for 2012, which it's a real interesting NBR year, where they get seven of the eventual nine Oscar nominees for Best Picture on their lineup. They have Argo, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Django Unchained, Le Miserab, Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook, and Zero Dark 30. Zero of Dark Threaties wins their top film of the year. And so the only ones that ultimately are Oscar Best Picture nominees that don't end up on the NBR top 10 are Amor, which gets their Foreign Language Film Award.

So, like, they got something. And then Life of Pie, which doesn't show up anywhere. That's sort of the omission. And then NBR fills out their list with Promised Land, which is by far the, like, that's the bucket list of this year. That's the one where you look at it and you're just like, huh, promise land. And then it's other two are like popular movies that were probably two niche in one way or another for Oscar, which is Ryan Johnson's Looper, which is like a very important sort of connective for like the old Ryan Johnson who was sort of like very like cult fave and now the new Ryan Johnson who is sort of more broadly popular. And I think Looper is the way station between them. And then the other one was the perks of being a wallflower, which is two.

two teen for Oscar, and we get it, but like people really liked that movie. It was based on a popular book, yada, yada. So Promise Land showing up on this list was like that's the lifeline that it needed, and ultimately it didn't really get much more beyond that. But it's an interesting National Border Review. It's one of the National Border Review always does the, we're going to try and throw a bone to everything we can. And they really...

Every studio will buy a table at our event. Like, Ben Affleck for Argo gets the special achievement in filmmaking, which, like, I don't know what that is, but, like, it's good. Basically, it's just like, well, we gave Catherine Bigelow best director for Zero Dark 30, but we don't want you to get nothing. So, like, we're just going to give you. Well, I think it means, like, they were basically saying, oh, you did all of this. You directed the movie. You starred in it. You produced it. You wrote it. You, this. Yeah. Which, like, that happens all the time. Yes. They were pretty good with their breakthrough actor and actress well conventione wallace for beast of the southern wild which like how could you not that year with that movie being what it was but they gave tom holland the breakthrough actor for the impossible which is pretty prescient like you know that few months ago when like everybody was freaking out about the impossible because it just showed up on netflix and it's like some of us were saying

that this kid was great yeah at the time ago during this movie and people were acting like this movie came out of nowhere and it's a Oscar nominee yeah like know your history folks Just because it showed up on Netflix Bleak Yes exactly So Promise Land

The other award The Promise Land gets though Is another one of those classic NBR Bullshitty Awards Which is the NBR Freedom of Expression Award Which was also won

By a previous episode Conviction Yes And that is tied that year With the documentary The Central Park 5 And essentially

This is National Border reviews way to, and like this is no slate against Central Park five, which is a really good documentary. But it's, again, it's another sort of catch-all thing. We're just like, we want to find a way to give another award to another movie. And this one, the qualifications are, are you about something that is newsy or, you know, if your subject matter sufficiently important, like that kind of a thing. So who got it this year?

I feel like this year's NBR, I felt like had a few where it's just like, I think one night in Miami got one of those sort of just like, yeah, they got the Freedom of Expression Award this year, which is essentially just like, well, we wanted to give you something and you're like about something. So we're going to, you know, do that for you. And, you know, good for them. Good for the national. This is why I never really get that worked up or bad at national.

Board of the Review. Sometimes you see people being like, they're not real critics. Grumble, grumble, grumble, like whatever. And it's just like... Yeah, they're this weird phantom assemblage of people. They say that there's some academics in there, which... Okay. There's film historians in there. Like, nobody really knows who they are. They're just kind of hiding in plain sight, just like the Hollywood foreign press. There's a lot of sort of knee-jerk resentment, because they always have to be the ones to get out first. Although that's been sort of... grip on that has been waning. I feel like New York film critic circle has been trying to take their lunch on that for a while and whatever. And then they're also sort of, again, slighted for the fact that they want to spread the wealth, give something to everybody. They're sort of seen as thirsty and like, yes, but like for whatever reason, them being thirsty, I find far more palatable than the critic's choice being thirsty. Because the critic's choice try to be thirsty in ways that, like, we, they want to, they for so many years touted how many of their nominees would go on to be Oscar nominees. And it's just like, so you're

predicting things? Like, that's what you, like, want to hang your hat on. Where, like, at least NBR, and this is why I like the Globes, too, they'll, like, they'll throw you something. The fact that NBR nominated the bucket list, a lot of people saw as a bug and I see as a feature, where it's just like, yeah, that's what makes them fucking weird. Like, I like that. They always have one at least one that is absolutely absurd. This year it was the Midnight's guy. Yes. I'm like, good. Fine.

Good. I like that. It doesn't have to be the same thing. Have your bad taste sometimes. I have bad tastes sometimes. But no, you're right to compare them to Critics Choice. Because Critics Choice, A, I feel like, is the only reason it is still a major precursor is because they are a large voting group similar to the way Oscars are.

So consensus can build similarly when you have several, thousand people voting for something. But they're thirsty, and Critic Choice is thirsty in a way because, like, they decided a few years ago, probably about a decade ago, that they were more importantly

a television show. Yes. Than an actual award ceremony. Right. Yes. And, you know, do your thing, I guess. But like... Yeah, do your thing.

Have your superhero movie award so you can, I don't know, have attention. But the fact that, like, you mentioned this year's NBR Top 10 and it's very like, yeah, they have the Midnight Sky, which a movie that zero people I've

ever heard of liking. But okay. Apparently everyone watched it. But also, they have the Midnight Sky, but they also have the 40-year-old version. And it's just like, oh, right, they'll go off script for kind of like weird, cool things anyway. If you go back to, bringing

it back to the 2012 National Border Review, they're supporting actresses and Dowd for compliance, that, like, self-promoted, you know, self-financed award campaign for Ann Dowd and compliance, that was back when, like, by the way, nobody knew Ann Dowd's name. Like, you may have recognized her face from other things, but, like, it's not, not, like, now where, like, Ann Dowd is, like, everybody's favorite character actress or whatever. Like, nobody knew who she was. She was a Sundance.

That movie played Sundance, and people really liked it. Or, like, some people really liked it. Some people kind of hated it. it was a little divisive, right? Compliance. But, like, she was universally loved for that movie. People have apparently forgotten about this and that she self-financed her campaign. Because we did this for, like, one of our, like, Twitter polls or something,

and people were like, that's not a thing. She didn't blah, blah, blah, blah. And it's like, no, she paid for her campaign. I'm pretty sure she paid for the screeners for that movie. Yeah. And she ended up with a National Board of Review Award. and, like, now she's, like, part of that year's, you know, awards galaxy forever and never and ever. And, like, and it made more people watch that movie, and good for that.

And good for the National Border Review for, you know, and again, was it because they were campaigned to so directly? Probably, but, like, who fucking cares? Like, it's a cool nomination. We now have National Institution Ann Dowd. Exactly. They got in on the ground floor with Ann Dowd, and they look better for it. Between that and Tom Holland, like, this is actually a really good year for National Board Review looking forward thinking, which is good.

There are other acting awards that year were Bradley Cooper and Best Actor for Silver Lining's playbook. Jessica Chastain for Zero Dark 30 for Best Actress, Leonardo DiCaprio for Django Unchained supporting actor. This, I think for all three of them that really helped set the table

for all, you know, all three of them. I know DeCaprio doesn't end up getting nominated for Django Unchained, but like he was in that race pretty much the whole way up until, you know, Oscar nomination morning. He was the one when Seth MacFarlane and Emma Stone decided to get cute with, you know, oh, supporting actor nominees. He's been nominated. He's won before. They all had won before. And like, DiCaprio was the spoiler of that. Once they started doing that bit, I'm like, well, I guess Leonardo DiCaprio didn't get nominated, you fucking idiots. I'll never let that go. That aggravating. That was the beginning

of Oscar nomination morning being, like, futzed with? Yeah. Like, that was it, right? Like, it hadn't really happened before that. Before that, it was still the tried and true early morning press conference with... Seth McFarland was truly a trendsetter for the worst in terms of Oscar. He kicked it all off. It's his fault.

You never let them tell you that picking a bad Oscar host can't have long. standing negative reverberations because it can. He really poisoned that well. It did give us, I will say, well, no, I'm not going to let Seth McFroll off the hook. The fact that we got dick poop after this was because they went back to a little bit of the basics where Cheryl Boone Isaacs and Chris Pine, Chris Pine, right? He was the one standing next to her. He was the Chris next to her when she said dick poop, right? I think. Who no? Like a dick poop probably overshadowed all nominees. But, like, the fact that we got dick poop after the Seth McFarland debacle is, like, a miracle. Because, like, they did really kind of, like, go back

to basics for that. But, like, that's the kind of moment you get when you get a president of the academy who is not an actor and who, like, it's funnier that it came from Cheryl Boone Isaacs and it didn't come from Kumail Nanjiani. Nothing against Kumal. But, like, the fact that, like, it wasn't an actor. who made that mistake, made that funnier. Yes. I will stand by that. Anyway.

For achievement in cinematography, the nominees are Emmanuel Lubeski for Birdman or the unexpected virtue of ignorance. Robert Yeoman for the Grand Budapest Hotel. Lukash Yal and Reischard Lenshouski for Eda. Dick Poop. Dick Pope.

For Mr. Turner. And Roger Deacons for Unbroken. You knew going into this Promise Land episode that we were going to talk about Dick Poop, you guys. I don't know why you're surprised. I don't know why this is a surprise. The real surprise is we don't talk about Dick Poop every episode. It's the best thing. When people talk about, like, why do people pay attention to award season?

It's so stupid and whatever. And it's just like, yeah, but it gives us moments like that. Like, I will never, I will never apologize for. That was a great moment on the timeline where it's just like. You know, when it's nomination morning, where you just see, like, tweets that are just actress name, four exclamation points, or, like, WTF, where is actor name? Four exclamation points. And then you were just like, scrolling and listening, scrolling and listening.

And then it was just a sea of people tweeting dick poop. So my experience on Oscar mornings have become very regimented, especially when I was working for Decider and I was like I had to get like the nomination article up like first thing in the morning right but so if you follow me at all on social media you know that like I have a process for Oscar nomination morning and like this is a thing that goes back to like my college years or like not too long after my college years where I would get so psyched for Oscar nomination morning and I would for ease of because you know initially I would would watch, like, the nominations on E, and they would be reading about, and I would just scribble

the names as fast as I could, and sometimes I wouldn't be able to keep up with it, and, like, whatever, and, like, I would drive myself crazy. So what I started to do was I would pre-write a list of, like, every possible conceivable acting, directing picture nominees. And so, as they would read off the nominations, I would just check. And I just be like, got it. And I would put them all alphabetical order because I knew they read the names in alphabetical order, so I would check as I went along, and the fringe benefit of that was, when somebody got passed over in the alphabetical list, I knew it right away. And so my brain would have that half second of like serotonin jump of just like, oh, like this happened. Haven't they screwed with that recently, though,

that it's not always alphabetical, they'll go alphabetical by the movie? They've screwed with it a little bit. One of the times was the South McFarland, Emma Stone year. And it has, and it has upset me, but, like, they've gone back to it. So, like, it's not like they've abandoned it forever. I always feel like it's precarious, and we could lose it at any time, their dedication to the alphabet, but, like, we haven't lost it for good yet. But so that process of making those lists then has, like, blossomed into what I call the nerd list, which is, I will do this for every category and pre-make a list of contenders in every category, a lot of these smaller categories do bake-offs now, so like that helps, where I'm not like listing a hundred things

for international feature, right, right, exactly. But with like the acting categories, I'm still basically like going by my best judgment, trying to, you know, decide what 20 actors are still in contention or whatever. Usually it's not that many. Every once in a while, I'll know that something is a real surprise when I have to, like, write it in, you know, myself. This was going to be my question from, like, acting nominees or directing nominees, when have you had to handwrite it? I'm trying to think of what the... Like, how surprise, that is very telling of, like, how much of a surprise one of these things were. Yeah.

Because I know, I've seen your nerd list before. Didn't I make you the nerd list last year? You might have. This year, I've got to figure out how I'm going to do it because, um... I don't have access to a printer, and, yeah, and other people now have come to, like, depend on the nerd list, like, that I send it to them. So I now feel sort of like a responsibility. But so, how did I even get on this?

Oh, right. So, like, so dick poop happens. So, like, my process on Oscar nomination morning is I've got all these, like, pieces of paper out in front of me. I'm ready to check my boxes. I'm like an accountant on April 15th. I'm just like paperwork and paperwork everywhere. That's what I imagine accountants do on tax day.

And also, while this is all happening, I'm like, I've got my like article sort of like halfway written that I've got to like get up right away. So I can't really check Twitter or get immersed in the Twitter stuff, which is too bad because I want to have those reactions too of just like actress name, exclamation point. Somebody got nominated, and I'm super excited about it. But so dick poop happens, and I'm just like, my brain is screaming because my fingers have to have work to do, right? I've got boxes to check. I've got lists to make sure are correct.

I've got an article to populate in the back end of my website. And all my brain is doing is like, goopoop, she said dick poop. I'm just like, just going crazy. crazy. And I know, like, I don't even think I actually did check the Twitter timeline, but I knew my brain is sending me these images of just like a rapidly scrolling Twitter timeline that is just like, dick poop, dick poop, dick poop. And I'm just like, I'm missing out on this most joyous occasion. But like, it's the, it was the wildest fucking shit. It will never not be funny. Cheryl Boone Isaacs has given us a gift. She should get an honorary

Oscar in about 20 years just for that moment. Just for Dick. Oh, God. God, I, like, sorry, sorry to Dick Pope that, like, he will never and be known as Dick Pope anymore. Like, oh. Yeah, sorry to that cinematographer. Sorry to that man. I want to know who was responsible for telling noted curmudgeon Mike Lee that his cinematographer was mispronounced as dick poop. I want I want

footage of that happening yeah it's a good point what's his reaction to that what is it like is it like delight

like impish delight is it like utter confusion is it just like get off of my porch like what is it like go away from me I'm like in the middle of my four week rehearsal

for my next movie I love likely um yeah yeah but like I Or maybe he, I doubt that he was watching the nomination announcement. Oh, I doubt.

But what is the look on his face? What is the birth opera scene facial transformation he goes through on hearing dick poop? Honestly, it kind of fits with like the Mr. Turner vibe, right? Like a little bit of all the Mike Lee movies that like Mr. Turner is the one that best accommodates a, uh, a, uh, a flub where the, president of the academy accidentally says your cinematographer's name is dick poop. Like that, you know, there's a little bit of that like mirthful, um, uh, not bodiness, but, uh, you know, a little, a little scatological humor probably would have amused Mr. Turner.

We really went far afield with this. I'm happy with it, though. I'm happy that we had our dick poop conversation at long last. So NBRO The AARP movie for Grownups Awards I was just about to do that We're so in sync Yeah so the only other

Go for it I want to know how these The nominations that it got How it got them and didn't get other ones Because they nominated Francis McDormand And Supporting Actress And Gus Hansant for Best Director But how are they not going to nominate

Howe Holbrook for supporting actor It's true So Francis gets the supporting actress nomination that, like, she's not bad in this movie, but she's not really in this movie much, and she doesn't get very much of an emotional

through line at all. Like, we get a couple of moments where she's on the phone with her kid, and like she's missing her kid, but like, there's really not much to that character. It's an odd nomination, even among, like, the M4G's, right? Uh-huh.

I don't know. It's weird. Other nominees make more sense in this. Sally Field for Lincoln, obviously. Shirley MacLean for Bernie is a rad nomination. I think that's a really good one. Was she Globe nominated? I don't think so.

I think this is the only really, like, big thing she got for that. I could be mistaken. Jackie Weaver wins it for Silver Linings Playbook, which is one of the weirder Oscar nominations. Like, she's another one. It's just like, what does she do with Silver Linings Playbook? Like, the joke became that she just like, I was going to say, she's just like, I was going to say,

she shows up with the crabby patties and the homemades and it's just like yeah, but like I guess I'm sure she has one like little like tearful scene with Bradley Cooper or whatever about like... She has this Tina, her Oscar clip is the scene at the like very beginning of the movie

where she's driving him home from his care facility and then it's also just like the shot of her watching Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper dancing. Yeah. I remember when she got that nomination, I like momentarily it was just like, oh, Silver Lighting's playbook could win best picture if they like it this much.

To give it, you know, acting nominations in all four categories, I'm just like, oh, wow, like, sure. So she wins supporting actress. The weirdo nomination, weirdly isn't even Francis McDormand. It's Catherine Keener for a late quartet, which is not quartet, the quartet from the Golden Globes that year. We've talked about Kristen Wig and Will Farrell. A late quartet is her and Philip Seymour Hoffman and Christopher Walken. And it's about a quartet who are late. Like now I'm becoming Kristen Wigg.

They're a string quartet, I believe. I've seen this movie. Yes, there are a string quartet. Wait, so the quartet is not about a string quartet? No, that's about, well, I've never seen the quartet. The quartet, I know one of the. as a singer. Okay.

All right. I've seen neither one of these movies, so I am completely in the weeds. But the fact that they both happened in the same year is truly wild. Like an act of, you know, the world sort of like folding in upon itself is very, very wild. Why would you simply call it quartet when you can call it Arriving on Time Quartet? Right. A late Quartet and a Punctual Quartet. Like, that would have been the true.

True rivalry of our time. Yeah. Also wild that Jackie Weaver won any award for Silver Linings Playbook over Sally Field in Lincoln. I know. Sally Field's so good in Lincoln. It's true. No offense to Jackie. We love Jackie.

We've talked some shit about Jackie on the mic before, but I love Jackie. Meanwhile, Gus Van Sanson best director against like four fucking heavyweights that year where it's like Spielberg for Lincoln. in Ang Lee for Life of Pie David O' Russell Silver Landing's playbook Catherine Bigelow for Zero Dock 30 and it's like Contender, Contender, Contender, Contender, Contender and then it's like, Gus Van Sant for Promise Land. Okay, like...

I'm going to pull this up. Like, is he an M for G's darling of some kind? Oh, check that out. Has he been nominated other times. Well, he won for milk, but that's it. So it's not like they're nominating him for... Well, they wouldn't nominate him for something like. Paranoid Park. Never mind.

That would be the wildest M4G's nominee. Okay, can I also, as I'm like scrolling on IMDB and this is the next adjacent award or whatever, Best Grown Up Love Story in 2012, not Lincoln for Sally Field and Daniel DeLewis, which fine, I get it. Which is nominated. No, that's what I mean. That's nominated. Hope Springs is nominated, which I think is a wonderful, like the definition of a grown-up

love story, right? That's the whole point of that movie. is let's tell a grown-up love story, Hope Springs. The courtet, the aforementioned the courtet with Maggie Smith and Tom Courtney. The Best Exotic Miragold Hotel, which is also a lovely late-in-life love story with Judy Dench and Bill Nye's characters. Those all get beat out by Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren in Hitchcock, which like the actual fuck are you talking about? What in the world? They were odd ones.

Thank God they didn't nominate Hyde Park on Hudson for the cousin hand job. That's true, which they could have. That was a very hand job a year because that was also the sessions. So, God, good for you, 2012. A salute to you. The year in hand. The Best Exxaric Marigold Hotel does win Best Movie for Grownups, which, like, that was that movie's destiny and good for that.

We got to do that movie at some point soon. Maybe you need to chill on the dames for a while. No, that's fine. We'll let the dames sort of a life-allow for a bit. Yeah, we've been rocking with Judy pretty hard for a while. So, yeah, we'll do that in a bit. Good for M-4-Gs. This is a good year for M-4-Gs.

They all are, really. At least somebody acknowledged the sessions beyond Helen Hunt's very good performance. It's a good point. I like that movie. That movie's nice. Yeah, wild. And, okay, just because I've scrolled through for the rest of these M4Gs, they also nominated John Louis Trentignon for Amour, which like was wild to me wasn't happening that season.

That was, the 21st century era of older actresses getting nominated for two-hander movies where the award season just fully forgets about their male co-stars is like a whole thing where It's like, it's away from her where Julie Christie gets, like, Oscar nomination, all of this stuff for, like, well-deserved. But poor Gordon Pinsent is just like right there with her and is doing phenomenal work and, like, jack squat from award season. Same with John Louis-Trentinant for Amor and opposite Emmanuel Riva. Same thing for Tom Courtney opposite Charlotte Rampling in 45 years. Just like, not to be all like justice for old white men, but like justice for those old white men. men. They were doing such good jobs.

Are you saying that the said Oscar buzz is now a justice for these old white men? Yes, you can now pull quote me on that and fully ride me out of town on a rail. But you know what I mean. No, I agree with you on all of those performances, jokes aside. Yeah. But an odd little trend. And like, again, it like, it plays into the fact that like, there aren't as many leading roles for women in big, you know, buzzy movies. And that's why those performances you know there's less maybe less competition I always feel

dicey when I say that there's less competition for Best Actress because in a perfect world there wouldn't be there are plenty of wonderful performances but like Oscar voters narrow their perceptions and just of those narrowed perceptions there's fewer lead performances by women anyway

anyway M4G's what else about Promised Land did we want to We talked a little bit about Gus Van San It's our second Gus Van Sant movie We've ever drawn. Yes, we should.

And we talked about Finding Forrester, and it makes sense that with Finding Forrester, the conversation went to, you know, who is the man now dog, and, you know, deep discussions of that. Gus Van Sant's directing career is absolutely fascinating to me. And, like, I always want to just sort of, like,

linger on it for a while because he is capable, of the most, like, really esoteric, um, challenging, small sort of, like, uh, you know, my own private Idaho, which, like, became popular, but, like, did so really sort of organically. Um, elephant, Jerry, uh, the last days, that sort of, like, trilogy of, like, very kind of quiet, uh, small. Movies about death. Yeah, movies about death in the, uh, mid. Ornoy Park. Right. And then, like, his other stuff, and, like, sometimes he'll try something experimental, like, remaking Psycho Shot for Shot, which is, like, should be talked about probably more. But then it's, like, Goodwill Hunting, Finding Forrester, um, to die for. Like, well, to die for is, like, there's an edge to to die for even, right? Like, to die for is, you know, it's not, it's pricklier than maybe you're expected to be. Like, something like restless or something like, or something like, I mean, nobody saw Sea of Trees,

who knows, but like, something like, don't worry he won't get far on foot, the, uh, the, this like emotionalism. And just like, and just kind of an absence of whatever directorial stamp that he puts so significantly on his other movies.

It's like the gulf between those two like Gus Manzant genres are, is really wide to me. I thought about finding Forrester a lot while watching this movie, because I remember watching that. for this podcast and being like, this doesn't feel, unless maybe I'm misremembering, it didn't feel like watching a Gus Van Sant movie or it made me really question what makes a Gus Van Sant movie.

I agree. And like watching this, I certainly didn't feel like I was watching a Gus Van Sant movie, but I definitely felt like I was watching a movie from the director of Finding Forrester, if that makes sense. No, it makes total sense because I thought the exact same thing. And, like, he's got a lot of interesting shades to his, like, I guess I as a director that don't always overlap. Yeah. But he's so hard to play sometimes that it just makes him an interesting to director to talk about even when it's not successful.

It's interesting that both of his collaborations with Matt Damon just fully hand the movie over to Matt Damon. And, like, he's just, like, it's not like, I don't want to, like, again, I wasn't on set. I don't know. He, you know, he's a very hardworking director. But he, with both of those movies, was really content to just sort of not go to, like, Gus Van Sant at a 10 at that movie. It was just like, I'm just going to let Matt Damon's character and story and whatever sort of, you know, come through in this. And it works in Goodwill Hunting because that is a really interesting script with a really, really good to grade. central performance in it. And Promise Land doesn't have either of those things. Well, and Goodwill Hunting, I'm not sure. I agree that he fully hands that movie

over to Matt Damon, but Goodwill Hunting has this really rich emotional core to it, right? The way that, like, a lot of Gus Van Sant's best movies or, like, some of his most successful movies, do, like, I'm thinking of

milk as well. There's other things going on about my own private Idaho, but, like, I do think of that as an emotional movie as well. Oh, yeah, definitely. Yeah, I guess it's, like, he's harder to pin down than I initially sort of thought he would be, because you're right, it's not like my own private Idaho or to die for are of the same type as, I think the fact that he did Jerry and Elephant in Last Days back to back to back, that it really was this trilogy of movies with similar vibes.

and aesthetics to each other. Like, they were all small in ways that kind of conversed with each other, even if they weren't, like, about, like, same subject matter. But, like, that felt like the most—that was the period of his career where it felt like the Gus Van Sant thing is, like, a tangible thing, which in a way that it hadn't been, even since, like, drugstore cowboy, my own private Idaho, even cowgirls get the blues, which is, like, I think the last time that his career felt that cohesive. and but like to die for and the psycho remake are not like conventional safe movies but they're not

weird in the same way that like elephant and last days are weird if that makes sense so it's like it's not like it's just you get one Gus Van Sant or the other there's like a lot of different flavors of Gus Van Sant but one of them is this kind of Finding Forrester promised land um real soft pedal like just a real real soft pedal and And it doesn't work as well. But I think those are the ones that, like, unsurprisingly, come under our umbrella of what we talk about, where it's, like, eventually Gus Van Sant became, had the kind of reputation where, like, his kind of movies are going to get a little bit of Oscar buzz no matter what. And so what...

I mean, even Sea of Trees before, you know, it was seen at Cannes, like, was... Yeah, the fact that it was at Cannes at all was... is, you know, is Gus Vansant and his reputation sort of... It's so weird because I don't think he has had... Well, I mean, Elephant, obviously, that's his biggest can success, but, like, that they took that movie at Cannes. I know. He... Well, like, you can say that Gus Vantzant is also on this, like,

downshift in quality that didn't necessarily start with Promised Land, but, like, is prominent for that, because it really kind of started with Restless. That movie nobody saw with Mia Vasikovska. Because there's that sea of trees, and don't worry he won't get far on foot, which also isn't very good that we hope Gus Saint can bounce back from. He had this Will Ferrell movie that he was going to shoot at Paris Fashion Week. But obviously the pandemic derailed that. Right.

It was written by Michael Chabon, et cetera. Like that sounded incredibly promising. Yeah. Because, yeah, that's the sort of the big bummer of the sort of post-milk downturn. for Gus Van Sant in the last decade is it's not just like they were misses, but they were real quiet misses. Like, Restless was a failure that nobody saw. Promised Land was largely a failure that mostly nobody saw.

Sea of Trees was a disaster, but it was a disaster that happened outside of the vision of anybody who wasn't at the Cannes Film Festival. Like, you know it was bad because you heard it was bad from, like, across the ocean. but like nobody you know has seen the sea of trees i'm saying i've seen sea of trees no i know i'm not saying you specifically but like the average person doesn't know anybody who's seen the sea of trees i know you've seen the sea of trees um and like don't worry he he won't get far on foot which was a netflix movie right amazon amazon i knew it was a streaming thing so like it was certainly widely available to people but still nobody saw it so he just he's like disappeared

in a way that, like, bums me out. Because I think he could be a really interesting director, and I think we're sort of better for the moments when he is being a really interesting director. So, there's that. Let's talk about Gasland for a second. I sort of glossed over it when

we talked about the origin of this movie, but Gasland was a documentary that was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the Oscars at 2010, and it's about fracking and the environmental aspects of fracking. It's the one that was mostly well known for the scenes where they were lighting people's tap water on fire to show how much natural gas was in the water supply and how much contamination was in the water supply. And my remembrance of Gasland, that's because, you know, I am a dumb dumb who learns about

the world through mostly movies and TV, is I remember being like, oh, that's the first time I ever really heard about fracking, I and I, like, you know, the simple person who needed, like, you know, a Hollywood movie to tell me that this thing exists. I was not alone in that. Like, looking back, like, all of these reviews are Promised Land or just, like, this sort of continues the path set by Gasland. And that, like, Gasland really, like, made a lot of people aware of fracking who are not aware of fracking. It really, like, brought that issue to promise. Well, it kind of was, like, Promised Land had a little bit of this, but I think because, this was a movie that went away quickly, whereas Gasland was an Oscar nominee, it was on HBO, etc. Got a sequel. It got a lot of heat and

attention from fracking companies like trying to say that it was like misinformation or this type of thing and like you're talking about billions of dollars of an apparatus working against a movie too and like that certainly puts the movie

in a certain position. So that's like one of the good things where we learn about the evils of fracking, however it is, that we learn about it for the first time. They mobilized against Promised Land, too. There was a lot of protest and sort of an informational campaign. It's so funny to feel like, oh, hey, this movie shows that, like, how big energy companies will really, like, put their whole apparatus into mobilization about disinformation, about disinformation, about, fracking. And it's just like, well, to counter that, we are going to mobilize our organization to sending out disinformation about fracking. And it's just like, cool idea, guys. Like, your sense of irony is sharp. Um, so I guess in that way, at least, like, Promise Land can sort of hang its hat and just like, well, we, you know, we ruffled some feathers

on some level. So, cool. I mean, I think that we, you can say promised land to somebody and maybe 10 times out of 10 they haven't seen it. Of course. But they know that it's the fracking movie says something. Yes. Yeah, when we put out our teaser

for what movies are we going to do in February and you did the famous peppermint crossing her fingers in front of her mouth. Not the fracking. As soon as people recognize that image, they were like, oh, you're doing Promise Land, the movie about the fracking. So, yeah, you're not wrong there at all.

The fracking movie about the fracking. I want to go through my notes and see if there was anything that I missed. Oh, the thing at the beginning where Matt Damon and Rosemary DeWitt are at the bar and they're flirting or whatever, and they do the thing where he does eight shots in eight minutes to get everybody at the bar free drinks or whatever. Eight shots in eight minutes is a lot. Like they up it from six shots and six minutes to eight. And I'm just like, that's enough. Like, he wakes up with, like, a hangover, but I'm just like, I'm surprised he woke up.

Like, that will fuck you up. That will fuck you up. That it immediately cuts to him waking up on her sofa with a hangover from hell. Though, yeah, you're right. Even if he woke up, he would be waking up very slowly. I'm surprised he could move. Like, yeah, it was, that's a lot of shots. I liked that little moment.

There are a couple little moments in this movie that I think are really well observed. The moment where the basketball team comes out and they need the gym when they're in the middle of the meeting, the Hell Holbrook meeting at the gym, I was just like, oh, okay, like the, you know, the apparatus of this town kind of moves on. I liked that. I liked Francis McDormon flirting with Titus Welliver, a likely couple alert. Like, she's too big to get cast on Bosch, but, like, kind of cast her on Bosch. I want my Francis McDormand, Titus Wellover, romance to happen in some medium or another. Titus Welliver, the most unlikely small town citizen you've ever seen. Titus Welliver, like, I don't know how the age spaces out, but I'm pretty sure you could cast him as Sam Elliott's son in something, right?

Sure. They're probably about good 20. facial features. They're like 20 years apart. Like, Titus Welliver has such a Sam Elliot vibe to me. Like, especially when, uh, they put any kind of facial hair on him whatsoever. Like, it's... I mean, but Sam Elliott's so cuddly. Titus Welliver, like, plays characters who kill people. But like, Sam Elliott's cuddly when he wants to, like, play against type. Like, Sam Elliott's vibe is like, there's, that's a gruff man. Oh, Sam Elliott's vibe in the past decade has been high. Would you like to have sex with a

septogenarian? Right, because every movie that casts him decides they're going to cast him as, like, against type, essentially. Like, he's, like, that voice is meant... Like, he's handsome. He is, but he's also just, like, you know, he's a grumble face. I can't get over. I wrote down, like, multiple notes about John Krasinski's Henley. Like, Lord knows I'm attracted to a man in a Henley, but, like, it would not endear him to the people in this town.

I'm telling you. Yes. Okay. The part where Hal Holbrook has to tell Matt Damon's character, he's a good man, by saying you're a good man. I'm just like, that's when you know that like a script really needs to like, the problem this movie has with who am I supposed to root for in this movie is such a huge one, where it's just like, oh, is it the corporate stooge or the like wildly insincere bro environmentalist? And it's just like, you know, ultimately like, where am I? I'm supposed to go with this? Like, what do you want me to do with this? Because I have no, even if I'm going to go in one direction or another, it's not going to be enthusiastically or, like, with my heart. So, I don't know.

Yeah. Am I wrong? It's been a while since we've watched kind of one of these, not to put two final word on it, but like nothing movies. Yeah. And then my last note, because I watched the trailer before we started recording, there's enough monsters and men's song in the trailer because this was the era of everybody puts

and of Monsters and Men's Song in their trailer and the law demanded it, so there we were. Fantastic. What do you got? Anything else before we hop on into IMDB land? I don't think I have anything. Let's do the IMDB game. All right. Why don't you tell

our fair listeners what the IMDB game is? So, townsfolk. If we do have any fracking representative salespeople. First of all, shame on you. Second of all, the rules of the IMDB game for everyone of the village and not. We end our episodes with the IMDB game where 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 those 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.

And if that's not enough, it just becomes. a free for all of hints. Free for all. Free for all. I.M.D.B. All right. That doesn't work. Chris, do you want to give or guess first? I think I want to give to you first.

All right. You've been on a streak of doing very well. I know. This can't last. It can't last because I would like to challenge you today with a performer we mentioned in this episode. As a National Board of Review winner, she was also nominated at the AAS. ARP movies for grownups, so don't give all the credit to the National Board of Review for going there first. Also Critics Choice nominee, Ann Dowd. Ann Dowd. I knew you were going to do this to me. Okay.

No television. No television. No television. Wild. Utterly wild. Despite her Emmy Award-winning performance on Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale. Emmy Award winning performance on Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale and also So, rad-ass performance on the leftovers, like, oh, God. Oh, yeah, because she, I've never watched the leftovers, but I do love the jiff of her saying, let's go fucking die. You would really like the leftovers.

I know there's probably some resistance to, like, it's the show that everybody's talking about, so I get it. No, no, it's not that. It's just a lot of seasons of TV. It's a commitment. But it's, oh, it's quite good. Or as Anne might pronounce it, TV. TV, the great people working in TV.

Okay, and Dowd, Annie Dowd. Well, like, if it's not any of the TV shows... National Institution, one of our finest, and Dowd. Compliance has got to be one of them. Compliance is. All right. So now we get into... What are the other movies?

Okay, this is probably more heart than head of a guess, but I'm going to say Hereditary. Hereditary is on that. Yes, good for you. Good for you, IMTB. God, she's so terrifying in that movie. But in a weirdly, like, she's so terrifying because she doesn't play it like she is in a horror movie or she's nefarious, which if you look at that character and, like, her point of view in this, like,

uh, coven or whatever, like, they think they're doing the good work. No, it's true. All right, now I've got to think of, like, there's probably something that's, like, big budget but she's got a small roll in that like I'm forgetting

the good thing about Anne Dowd is that I'm only really working with like the last decade like I can't imagine anything from before 2010 is going to show up on her IMDB oh no

it's not collateral beauty is it? Is that a guess? No, it is not I've never gotten a jiff of Andowd, like, tiptoeing to a mailbox, but it's one of the funniest acting beats I've ever seen in something that wasn't trying to be funny. She's so entertaining in that movie for, like, hardly being in that movie, but like, oh, my God, all right, okay, okay, all right. God, what other movies has she been in?

I'm so attuned to her on television. Um, she's in, like, she's in, like, Garden State and, like, Bachelorette, but, like, those roles are so small. I am going to guess Garden State, though. Garden State is one of them. That's truly wild and insane. Okay, so you have one more movie to guess. She's Natalie Portman's mom in Garden State, and, like, she's good, but, like, wow. Okay, one more.

to guess. One more to guess. You have one wrong answer. Yeah. Okay. All right. It's funny that I said that there wouldn't be anything before 2010, and then my next correct guess was something before 2010.

I might just need to throw something away to, like, get a year and at least help me out in that way. But what to even think? throw out um um like she's in uh i'm just going to guess bachelorette even though i don't think it's bachelor at even though i don't think it's bachelorette the uh year of your film is 2004 which same year as garden state god damn it all right go back go back go back and time um 2004

see it's going to be something that she was like in like such a super like character actor role that like I'm not going to remember is it a movie I've seen or is it like something that's like totally absolutely you've seen this movie okay is a movie I like

uh I forget but I think so okay It's a movie we've talked about doing Passively, not actively So it had Oscar Buzz Yes Did it have precursors? I do believe so, let me look

I wouldn't be surprised if specifically one performance Did have precursors, I'm pretty sure it did Yes That performance was a Globe and Baftan nominee and also an AARP Movies for Grownup's Nominee. Oh, God. 2004. We've talked about that actor doing another movie with this movie's director.

We've had an episode on this Globe and BAFTA nominated star for this movie, doing another movie with the same director. Oh, God. Okay. Globe and... Did you say BAFTA nominee or Globe and Critics? Choice nominee. Globe and BAFTA. And AARP. And AARP. Oh, it's Merrill Streep and the Manchurian candidate. It's the Manchurian candidate. Yes. Ann Dowd's in that movie. Ha! She plays a Congresswoman. Sure. I should

go back and watch that again and enjoy Ann Dowd. That's awesome. That's a weird IMDB game for Aunt Dowd. Jesus. No television. Yeah, not the leftovers, not the Handmaid's Tale, but the Manchurian candidate and Garden State. Sure thing. Okay. weird. Well, my streak of perfect games had to end sometime. Okay. I'm so sorry. All right. For you, my friend. Actually, I'm going to give you this person's name before I tell you why, and then I'll tell you why later. Oh. But I'm going to have you do John Goodman. John Goodman. John Goodman, who won the, like, whatever legacy prize, they want to call it at, um, a National Board of Review the year of promised land

is that the lie I'm just going to have you guess okay so you didn't say television so I'm going to guess no television no television no Roseanne no the Connors no righteous gemstones uh huh so

Argo Argo yes cool 10 Cloverfield Lane Yes You motherfucker I thought that would be hard for you He's so good in that movie

He is People don't talk about that movie anymore though It's too bad, it's a great movie Yeah Lobowski Nope, strike one No Lobowski Barton Fink

Yes Barton Fink You son of a B I knew a Coens would be in there Now my curiosity is, is it just one Coens, or is it another Coens? I mean, if it's another Coens, it's not going to be inside Lewin Davis, I don't think, because he just has, though, like, one or two scenes.

I don't think it'll be Coyote Ugly. Should be, though. I mean... That man dances on a bar. He earned it. You know what? John Gooban always earns it. He's great.

Screw it. I'm just going to try to get the year, though I think this could be right, and I'm going to say, Raising Arizona. It's not Raising Arizona. That's a very good guess. Your missing year is 2012. Oh, okay. So also the Argo year is it? Flight.

Flight. Yes. I didn't want to tell you before. that the connective tissue was that he won that NBR prize for four different movies in 2012, two of them being Argo and Flight. Yes. What was the other one? Hold on a second. What are his other 2012 movies as I'm looking at his? I think one of them's like Trouble with the Curve. It is. It was Argo, Trouble with the Curve, Flight, and he was a voice in Parenthormon. Gotcha. So that's what they gave him to him. So sure. Um, he's in a short film called KFC Love's Gaze, where he plays Colonel Sanders that I'm going to maybe need to, like, track down at some point. Sure. Sure.

Go for it. Work. Oh, I love John Goodman. He's great. It's insane that he's never been nominated for an Oscar. Uh, I don't know how that's going to, you know, rectify itself, but hopefully soon. Uh, all right. Yeah.

It's cool. Good episode. Anything else before we go away about Promise Land? Glad we did it. 2012 is a really interesting year to talk about. More interesting than to talk about Promise Land, but I love talking about 2012 with the Oscars. It's a really strong, rich kind of a year.

It's a time. It's a time. All right, that's our episode, though. If you want more of this had Oscar Buzz, you can check out the Tumblr at this hadoscarbuzz.com. You should also follow our Twitter account at had underscore Oscar underscore Buzz. Chris, where can the listeners find you and your stuff? You can find me on Twitter at

Chris V-File. That's F-E-I-L, also on letterboxed 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 exact same way. We would like to thank Kyle Cummings for his fantastic artwork and Dave Gonzalez and Gavin

Mievous for their technical guidance. Please remember to rate and review us on Apple Podcast, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, wherever else you get podcasts. A five-star review in particular really helps us out with Apple Podcast's visibility. So, make like it's open mic night at the local watering hole and try and win us over with your charm and compliments. That is all for this week, but we hope we'll be back next week for more

buzz. And less fracking. Less fracking. Not the fracking. She said She said dick poop!