This Had Oscar Buzz - 143 – The Muse (Focus Features – Part One)

Episode Date: May 3, 2021

We’re kicking off our May miniseries on Focus Features with the winner of our Listeners’ Choice poll, 1999′s The Muse. To kick things off, we’re looking at how Focus was birthed from the previous companies of USA Films, October Films, Gramercy Pictures and Good Machine. Written and directed by Albert Brooks, The Muse stars Sharon Stone as the … Continue reading "143 – The Muse (Focus Features – Part One)"

Oh, oh, wrong house. No, the right house. We want to talk to Marilyn Heck. I'm from Canada. I'm from Canada water. I'm going to need somewhere to live. A very nice sweet at the Four Seasons. The walls are too bright.

We need to do some grocery shopping. Hi, Daddy. Look, Daddy's here. You're shopping? Yeah. Who eats these? The snails? There's a lot of things you don't know about me.

Like your need for tampons. Albert Brooks, Sharon Stone, Andy McDowell, and John. Jeff Bridges. Your life is never going to be the same. It's my job to inspire. It's a miracle. Who is she? Just try to have some fun today.

What am I going to find? Why don't you go and then you can tell me? That's it. It's mystical. Told you. It's magical. Wow. It just might save my life.

Hello and welcome to the This Had Oscar Buzz podcast, the only podcast that gets dressed up all sexy to do housework. 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 late-night Waldorf salad. Chris Fyle.

Hello, Chris. You know, I have been called many things in this time. Great. I don't love Waldorf salad, so... So, wait, Waldorf salad is lettuce, chicken, apples, walnuts? Yes. And I think the dress. dressing is just mayonnaise, but I can't be wrong.

Gross. My mom, when we were younger, would make us a chicken salad that was most of those things. It was, it was diced chicken, iceberg lettuce, apples, peanuts, and then mayonnaise. So, like, it was, like, it was essentially, like, a nice chicken salad. It was more of that than, like, it was more chicken than salad, if that makes sense. So, like, but we really enjoyed that. But I never realized it was like that close to a Waldorf. I don't like walnuts.

Oh, see, I like walnuts. I don't like mayonnaise. And like I can have it in a true chicken salad or a tuna salad, but otherwise mayonnaise is, I'm very picky about soft white foods. Makes me feel like I'm eating something unnatural. I'm very picky about soft white foods. It makes me wish that we had like a year-end compilation of our greatest moments on the podcast, because like that would be.

that I would include Yeah, soft white foods that aren't cheese Or Right Or like Cake icing Like I don't like cream cheese Oh, that's interesting

Don't do mayonnaise Fascinating What do you have on a bagel? Butter All right My bagel order is in everything bagel with butter Oh that's interesting All right

I support that Okay Chris it's May It's the month of May It is indeed May By the time you're listening to this We're going to pretend it's May It's the waning rainy days of April

As I look out my window, forlornly But as you are listening to this, it's May In May we wear pink and do miniseries True Mostly it's just the miniseries This is our third consecutive year Where we have done a mini series For the podcast in the month of May

Our first turn at it We did the films of 2003 where we talked about movies like Sylvia and The Human Stain and The Missing and Remind Me Me What Our Fourth One Was. In The Cut? Jane Campion is exceptional in the cut. Was that our first listener's choice episode? That was the listener's choice. Yeah.

And then, of course, we used every opportunity we could take to talk about Cold Mountain, even though it was a many-time Oscar nominee. Last year, last May, which was also a... quarantine. It's like, it's, it's, it's unbelievable that that was a year ago, but it was last May we did our legendary Naomi Watts miniseries where we talked about La Diverse and the painted veil and Diana and a fourth one. What was our fourth one? What was our fourth one? Did we do? Oh, St. Vincent, which I believe was maybe a listener's choice. Maybe we chose all of the Naomi Watts. I think we might have, uh, yes.

we may have um and so this may we i think we sort of settled on this one pretty early at least as a strong possibility we wanted to do something not focused on a year or a person this time we are going to focus on a film studio and the choice to me was obvious what was what is the film studio that fits our little umbrella uh perfectly and also that we have great affection for uh pause for sound drops for soothing a sound drop that uh washes over me like a beautiful painkiller um our beloved focus features chris you know when i get really pissed off in a focus features film what when they use a needle drop for the focus features logo instead of the focus features music when has that happened that's pretty sure it happens with promising young

woman but it's also happened other times before that's interesting what i thought was interesting when i watched uh the film we're going to be talking about today the muse they used the focus features logo in the streaming uh version of the muse that i saw even though that is anachronistic they still use the october films title card i think it's probably just a rights thing they just added on to of course of course because they're the ones who are you know making it available to stream right now but uh can we talk about the october films logo though silence but it is 9,000 years long. So the screen is just October

for a good, like, five seconds. And then it's films. And then presents. Yeah. It takes a long time. But listen, they want you to, you know, they want you to linger with it. You're not going to forget it because you're just like, why am I looking at the words October films for this long?

So we're going to be doing a five-week miniseries because there are five Mondays in May this year. And the latter four movies are all going to be proper Focus Features movies from after the point where Focus became a thing in 2002. But we wanted to kick this off acknowledging the sort of rich corporate history of this production company, of this distributor. And we put it up to a listener's choice to pick one movie from the pre-Focus era where it was October. films, and then into USA films, and then finally focus. So...

Slash Good Machine. Good Machine was basically a branch of USA films, or was it October films? Good Machine was its own sort of thing. That was... But loosely associated. Right, and loosely associated with, I believe, Universal at the time.

That was James Seamus and Ted Hope's company. When we sort of run down the long and one road through film companies, we'll go into that. But talk a little bit about our listener's choice, because we had some really good options, and it was a really close poll that I was like, kind of thrilled by. We kind of chose it to, like, not have a runaway leader, right? We wanted some, like, good competition. We wanted some competition, yeah.

And for a while, in the last hours, it was tied. And that was very exciting. Yeah, we wanted something that. had a little bit more competition. I thought it was cool that like our deep cut episode basically would be voted on by the listeners. Our options were this, obviously, the muse, which won. High art, Lisa Cholodenko's lesbian art film starring Ali Sheedy, who won the indie spirit and some critics prizes. Also, Patty Clarkson giving a wild performance. But surprised that one didn't do so well in the poll because I know it has a lot of ardent fans.

For a third place finisher, I thought it actually had pretty good support. Like, it was going about maybe like five percentage points down from the two leaders, but like it was pretty, it was pretty solid. Yeah. It was the one that I voted for, spoiler. But just because, not only because, but as I, have I mentioned, maybe I have not mentioned on the podcast, But I've gotten into this kick of watching old Independent Spirit Award ceremonies on YouTube because, like, Film Independent has a whole bunch of them, especially from the late 90s and early 2000s, just in their entirety on their YouTube page, which is fantastic. So, of course, the first one I ran to was the 1998 Spirit Awards,

because I've been looking for this clip forever of Ali Sheedy's epic 10-minute acceptance speech for high art for best actress, which she starts. off. Oh my God! Rosanna Arquette was one of the presenters, and Rosanna Arquette and her are best friends, and she like harpoons Rosanna to, like, stand with her. And I told Rosanna, who is one of my very best friends,

and was known me for about three years, that she was going to have to lie. Because I would do it for her. And then she just goes on. And it's like, it's, I think in the intervening years, it became this sort of like legend at the spirits of this like unhinged, unending, like, almost like, people sort of talk about it if she was just like out of her mind. And like, I've never been nominated for anything before.

This may never happen again. I'm taking my fucking time. It's actually a really. like, cogent speech about how her opportunities had essentially dried up. You have no idea how much the two of us have been through. At least 12 years of not being able to get an audition for a sitcom. It's also just this, like, exuberant, like, hollering of names out into the room, and she thanks Bingham Ray, and she thanks Lisa Chiladenko and Patty Clarkson.

Roda Mitchell, where are you, my girlfriend? Where are you, Rada? Rada. Where? Come on, Rada, you're an Aussie. I know you'll stand up. Thank you. Rada Mitchell.

All this stuff, but it just goes on and on and on to the point where, like, Queen Latifah, who is the host that year, actually, like, sneaks on back, like, sneaks on to the stage behind her, puts the statue on the little podium, and then, like, grabs Rosanna Arquette and pull. her backstage because Rosanna couldn't like get away from her away from Allie and then like minutes later as the speech is going on Rosanna comes back on stage and is like they really want you to get off it's so good

anybody who like I highly recommend finding this this 1998 Spirit Awards and we will put since it's only available as the full ceremony we'll put a time stamp in there we will put it on the Tumblr page yeah it's it's wild. So anyway, for that and many reasons, because I do really love the film also, I voted for

high art. But it finished a strong third, as I said. The one that I voted for, spoiler alert, we always try to put like one of these real ones no options in our listeners' choice polls. Right. And that in this poll was the last seduction, which stars Linda Fiorentino. It's basically like a sex thriller, noir from the 90s, that had a festival run, got amazing reviews for Linda Fiorentino, and had a late-night HBO showing randomly, and that was found out before it had its theatrical release, and the movie was deemed ineligible by the Oscars. And she still ended up winning, like, National Society of Film Critics' Best Actress Prize or something like that.

Like, there was a large, like, groundswell of critical support. She either won or was, like, runner-up at New York critics. Right. And it all ended, basically, with her. She won the Spirit Award, but she also got nominated for BAFTA for it. Yeah. And that was the only one that I haven't seen of our listeners' choice options, so I was rooting for that one.

I also, I hadn't seen that one, and I also hadn't seen the muse. The other two I had seen. The fourth one was a map of the world. I'm even more excited. I believe Sigourney Weaver was Golden Globe nominated for a map of the world. That is a sort of domestic drama from 1999. That was part of Julianne Moore's big 1999, where she's in Magnolia and Cookie's Fortune and a map of the world. And maybe, oh, an ideal husband.

Right. And it's sort of a suburban, like Sigourney Weaver is watching her kid and Julianne Moore's kid. and like, I mean, whatever, it's a 1999 movie. Spoiler. Like, the whole crux of the movies that Julianne Moore's kid dies in her care. And so it's like this harrowing, sort of like domestic. Sigourney Weaver goes to jail.

David Strathairn is really hot. Right. Her husband or Moore's husband? He's Sigourney's husband, they believe in that. I'm pretty sure. Yes. Anyway. Yeah, so it was a really good poll.

And there was sort of pockets of support for everything that we saw in terms of our comments on our Twitter feed, which was very cool. And by a nose, buy a butterfly clip. Truly. The muse emerged victorious. By a single hair twist tie. We've got to talk about the shit they do to Sharon Stone's hair in this movie. It's amazing.

It's absolutely amazing. Why is it that every time they make a movie about the Greek muses, it's the wildest. fucking shit. It's like this, and Zanadu, and I don't need any other options. I don't need any other examples, because like, that's all I need. Yeah, so the muse comes out victorious, and we're definitely going to talk

about this movie, because there is stuff to talk about with this movie. But before we do, I want to talk about the October films of it all, the whole sort of reason why we wanted to do an initial episode from the pre-focus era, because, like,

again, as somebody who I was attuned to Oscars and I was attuned to the movies at the time, but I wasn't really attuned to like corporate studio politics, mergers, stuff back then. But I remember being aware of the sort of quick progression that went from October films to USA films to focus features. Because at the time that, especially like this year, which is 1999, the muse was 1999,

October was a really, really prominent art house distributor. They weren't Miramax. Miramax was the big dog in the yard, obviously, when it came to indie films. But like, October had their big year in 1996, where they had Oscar nominees with Secrets and Lies and Also Breaking the Waves. The history of October is that it's, founded in 1991 by Bingham Ray and Jeff Lipsky, Bingham Ray, who was this, like, big major indie film producer. I remember during that Ali Sheedy speech, she actually says he's like the only honest man in the film business or something like that. So he was very well respected. He passed away in the past decade.

2012. He died. He had a series of strokes while at the Sundance Film Festival in 2012 and died shortly thereafter. Very sad. But so Bingham Ray and Jeff Lipsky found October films in 1991, essentially because they needed a distributor for Mike Lee's Life is Sweet. And they just sort of, they built their own company to do that. And sort of during these like early years, 1990s, as the indie film movement was progressing, they have these films from these like either big at the time or were emerging in. filmmakers. So, like, they make Gregoraki's The Living End, Victor Nunez's Ruby in Paradise,

which was the Ashley Judd movie. That's kind of... Probably the closest thing to making our final four that didn't in terms of what the listener's choice would be. And that movie kind of, like, established Ashley Judd, who, like, at that moment, like, her sister and her mother were the more famous ones in the family. They were the Judds, you know, and that sort of... Grandpa, tell me about the good old days. They make Guillermo del Toro's Kronos, which was like his first, either his first movie or his first indie breakthrough. Obviously, we mentioned the last seduction, John Doll is the last seduction. They did Lost Highway with David Lynch, Lisa Cholodenko, as I mentioned for high art, Robert Altman's Cookies Fortune.

They have the Oscar breakthrough in 1996, as I said, with Mike Lee's Secrets and Lies and Lars von Treers breaking the waves. They also get Best Actor nomination in 1997 for The Apostle and 1998 Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress nominations for Emily Watson and Rachel Griffiths in Hillary and Jackie. So, like, by the late 90s, they had really started to break through into the Oscar realm. And then in 1997, they're purchased by Universal, which is like, this is where the sort of like, foreboding music sort of starts by anybody's just like oh you were purchased by a major film studio and then it's also when it gets like flimsy between what was a USA film right what was good machine what was October films right so in 1999 Universal then sells October films to Barry Diller Barry Diller was this sort of is still this media mogul he

He ran USA Network at the time, the television network, USA. He either was or would soon to be married to Diane von Furstenberg. That's sort of the thing I know about Barry Diller is that he's Diane von Furstenberg's husband. He merges October films with Gramercy pictures. Now, Gramercy, to sort of take a little detour off of this, was a sort of co-venture between Universal and Polygram. and they had a ton of big successes in the 1990s. They did either as a production company or just as a distributor. So they had dazed and confused with Richard Linklider.

Four Weddings in a Funeral, which is the Best Picture nominee in 1994. Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert. Danny Boyle's Shallow Grave. The usual suspects, Dead Man Walking, Fargo, like huge, huge hit for Fargo, bound the last days of disco, Elizabeth towards the end right around, obviously in 1999.

So that's when Diller merges October and Gramercy, and then because he was running USA Network at the time, turns them into USA films, which burns very brightly for a very short amount of time and has like big, big, big Oscar successes with being John Malkovich, Topsy Turvey, which was like Mike Lee's biggest film to date, it got a screenplay nomination, I want to say.

Is that correct? I think that's correct. It was probably, you know, maybe six or seven in the Oscar Best Picture run. If there's a top 10 that year, Topsy Turvey definitely makes it. It's a huge critical success. They did traffic. They did the man who wasn't there. And then right at the end of the USA film's tenure,

they did Gosford Park with Robert Altman. And then 2002, Gosford Park gets released, it's a 2001 film, but it gets released in like January of 2002. And then, so in 2002, USA Films is acquired by Vivendi, this like big, huge multinational. They merge it with Good Machine. Now, Good Machine was a production company that had been founded by James Chameas, the great, you know, writer-producer James Seamus, who, among other things, would eventually do Bropec Mountain, and also would be, like, incredibly synonymous with what would become Focus Features.

And Seamus and Ted Hope had founded Good Machine, and they had done a bunch of Ang Lee movies. They were sort of, like, very, in very early with filmmakers like Angley, with Todd Haynes. They produced Safe with Nicole Hollifziner, who we talked about, I believe their first time with distribution, not just being a production company. I'm pretty sure they decided to do their own distribution for Todd Salon's happiness because of controversy there. Yes. And you find this when you sort of dig back into the history of a lot of these 1990s indie

distributors especially is a lot of it is sort of necessity being the mother of invention where it's just like, we need somebody to distribute this movie. Nobody's doing it. We're going to have to do this ourselves. So, yeah. And so I think Good Machine at that point had established a reputation as being a very sort of filmmaker-friendly distributor and production company. And so Good Machine merges with USA films. And now it's sort of this.

At this point, it's like this Voltron of many different. very successful indie distributors. And then, so 2002, that's then what becomes focus features. Again, cue, soothing title card. And there you have it. But it's kind of, the history of focus features is a little bit, you know, take the Miramax parts of the 1990s indie boom out, and you get essentially all the component parts of what become focus feature.

It's kind of this interesting rise, too, because, like, I think we kind of, I've been really fascinated lately with, like, the 90s American independent cinema landscape because, like, it does have this whole building sense, especially as, like, it becomes more and more embraced in the Oscars. But it feels like a totally different thing to what, like, the independent film landscape is today, you know, right? where we have things like Netflix. But you have these more organic successes, and you have a lot of movies that have stood the test of time. Yes, yeah. Things like high art. Right.

So, yeah, it's fascinating. The other thing is, and again, not to make this entire podcast series about me watching Old Independent Spirit Awards, but like watching the ones from the late 1990s versus watching the ones from later on into the 2000s, you really get a sense of that in the 90s the independent film community did feel more like a community under itself. And that wasn't to say that like those people weren't also making studio films or at least like those actors weren't in studio films because they were. But like you really got a sense of like you watched those ceremonies and they have their own little like in jokes and, you know, sort of business.

references and also like the people who show up every year where like Jennifer Tilly's there every year and Ileana Douglas is there every year and Tim Roth and Don Cheadle and sort of you have the sort of interlopers who come

in every year where like there's a major movie and like oh Robert Duval is nominated for the Apostle this year so like Robert Duval's in the room but like there's this center of the independent film community that I mean, they had, like, this was back when they were doing, like, keynote addresses every year at these things.

So, like, James Seamus gets up there the one year, and God bless him, talks about, and kind of ironically, considering that, like, what, you know, good machine and focus features would end up being, you know, under the wing of a universal. But talks about, it had been just in the wake of the AOL Time Warner merger, which was, like, the biggest thing to date at that point in terms of, like, entertainment media, corporate mergers. and talking about sort of like being very wary and talking about the dangers of like what this means for the future of creativity and independent filmmaking and whatever, incredibly prophetic speech about like the squeeze that would be put on independent films and like as he's doing this,

they're like panning around the room and like people are getting up to go to the bathroom and like Chloe Sevenie is like making faces and people don't even have cell phones yet and yet they're like busying themselves on whatever little devices they have. at the time and someone's got a game boy

right and I was just like I felt so bad I was just like James Seamus is trying to tell you the future he's like he's the fucking Patti Clarkson pulls out her tomogachi right it's like he's the Terminator he's come from the future you don't understand and um well see here's my thing I was going to say like

you're describing what these 90s Indie Spirit Awards were and it's like you look at them now where they are nominating an awarding movies funded and entirely produced by Netflix. Right. Right. Movies that qualify purely because their budget is low enough, even though they were produced by studios.

Right. And it's because the indie landscape and the indie apparatus is like, it's just a totally different thing. And there's, I mean, it sounds like I'm being like they don't play music videos and I'm TV anymore about it. But, like, the idea of independent film used to be much more actually independent. And even in the, like, those. You go back and you look at the 90s Indy Spirit Award nominees and winners, and they are way cooler than they are now. Now, like, I've said this before, and I'll probably keep saying it, like, the fact that you can just buy a membership and the perk is you get to vote on the Indy Spirit Awards, it just turns it into this, like, people's choice awards of people. who follow and care about movies and it just it ends up reflecting the Oscars because

that's the movies people are already talking about like it doesn't it like those days feel gone of the indie spirits where like like for example I love her we're recording this on her birthday um like why is uh Renee Zalweger winning for Judy at indie Penn at indie spirit awards why is Laura Dern winning for a movie that was always produced and funded by Netflix. Right. Right. You're right. And so, as I said, the story of focus features is sort of is kind of the story of that progression of independent film from, you know, the true independent years of October through those like middle, you know, squishy years. And now, where focus now is just an apparatus of universal.

And that doesn't mean that we don't still love, you know, some of the movies that Focus puts out. And we do, and that's why we're doing this miniseries on it. But, like, it is very reflective of the evolution of what we think of as independent film at this point. So that's why we're doing this miniseries. And we're kicking it off with the music. muse. Yes, I'm sure you love to hear me blather on for 25 minutes about corporate mergers. But now we're going to talk about this wild-ass fucking movie. What's that? I said we are pivoting to becoming a business podcast. Yeah, yeah, for real. This movie is bug nuts crazy, though, Chris. This movie's so fun. I remember this movie as being more fun than it is. And I think that's because it takes a good... 20, 25 minutes for Sharon Stone to...

She shows up, like you see her. Yeah. But for her to actually be a character in the movie, it takes a long time. So I think this movie is awful. And it'll be a fun conversation as we sort of go through it. But let's sort of get past the hump of... We are now a half an hour into this.

So let's get past the hump of a... The 60-second plot description is the Sharon Stone of this episode because it's taken a half hour to get there. Exactly, exactly. And it's going to ask for a suite at the plaza. All right. So this week we are talking about, we're kicking off our Focus Features miniseries with the October films release, The Muse, written and directed by Albert Brooks. Also co-written by Monica Johnson with Albert Brooks, starring Albert Brooks, Sharon Stone, Andy McDowellie. Jeff Bridges, Mark Forstein, Bradley Whitford, a whole host of cameoing

Celebrity Actors and Directors. We definitely are going to talk about the cameos. Celebrity actors and directors and restaurateurs, in one very prominent case, actually. It premiered on August 27, 1999. It got one Golden Globe nomination that we will definitely talk about. And before we do, Chris, I'm going to put one minute on the clock if you want to do a 60-second plot description. Sure. All right.

Ready to talk about the muse starting now. What's the T-Honey Bee? Stephen Phillips is a Hollywood screenwriter. He's an Oscar nominee, but now he's told that his career is over. Anyway, he goes and meets his friend to talk about this. his friend is played by Jeff Bridges, and he, uh, Jeff Bridges reveals that, like, he has this new career boost because he has been dealing with a living muse, played by Sharon Stone. Uh, so he sets, uh, uh, Albert Brooks, Stephen Phillips up with the muse. She ends up having to, like,

run over his life, basically, in finances. She wants a room at the plaza. She wants a Waldorf salad at three in the morning. She, blah, blah, blah, blah. Eventually, she moves into his house and, like, ingratiates herself with Stevens, wife, played by Andy McDowell, who used to want to be a baker, and then all of a sudden she is almost immediately a baker because Sharon Stone says so. And then, anyway, it turns out that she is escaped from a mental institution, and then Albert Brooks makes this terrible sounding movie about an aquarium. And time.

Very good. Okay, so you think that this movie is awful. I do. I don't think that you are wrong, but I do think that Sharon Stone gives you. one of those performances that, like, laches her hooks into this terrible movie, hauls it upon her back, and turns it into a good movie with her performance. Just her performance alone makes this work. She's acting, like she's in a good movie, is what she's doing to paraphrase.

She is acting like she's in a good movie, but she's in a bad movie. She is, of course, listen, I love Sharon Stone. I love any time that Sharon Stone steps on to a screen. I don't know why we were talking about this week, but the Gap Turtleneck outfit she wore it to the Oscars was a talking point this week on Twitter, and I couldn't have been happier because I love to celebrate Sharon Stone. Why does my timer keep going off? Jesus.

I also think that Sharon Stone is definitely the reason that this movie was pushed over the edge to win the listener's choice poll and partly because her book just came out too which I still need to read like people are like how have you not read that yet because of course I will read that book but it's like every ounce

of my time has been sucked away with this Oscar season so I look forward to right reading so at this point we're at the tail end of the 1990s the 1990s is like Sharon's big decade, where it starts off with her in total recall, pivots very quickly to basic instinct. She becomes, like, infamous sex icon Sharon Stone.

Because of that, she makes a bunch of erotic thrillers, sort of like mainstream erotic thrillers, like Sliver. And what's the Stallone movie she's in? That's not like an erotic thriller, but like the specialist. Everything that she's in sort of gets marketed. as sexier than it is, kind of, because she's in it, where it's, like, Intersection, where she's basically playing, like, the spurned wife of Richard Gear. Like, she's not the sexy one in that movie.

That's Lolita Dividovich. But, like, that film is marketed as, like, sexy sex thriller, intersection. It's just like, no, it's not. It's just because Sharon Stone's in it, you fucking maniacs? Like, but, nice. 1995, she's in Martin Scorsese's Casino. She wins the Golden Globe Award, like, triumphing over all the other sort of, like, eventual Oscar nominees that year. She beats out Susan Sarandon and Meryl Streep and Elizabeth Shoe, wins the Golden Globe for casino.

I think when she accepts the award, she just walks up and she starts to stammer a little bit, and finally she just goes, well, it's a miracle. Let's just say it. It's a miracle. It's so endearing. she gets an Oscar nomination for it. It's her only Oscar nomination. And I think that's sort of the high point. And then already then, after that, the roles start getting a little bit more spotty. The career starts getting a little bit sort of choppier. And the muse is a good role for her, right? We're like, I don't know if she'd really gotten to be funny like this before and like some of it is really dumb funny like it this movie is almost there's times where this movie and like what it asks her to do feel on par with like an adam sandler movie right yeah it's so like silly and yes farcical and right yeah um but it's still

exciting because she hadn't really done comedy like this before the whole movie kind of hinges on her being sort of an effortlessly magnetic personality, which like, yeah, Sharon can do that. Like, that's sort of what you get Sharon for. My big problem with this movie is I think the tone stuff is kind of all over the place. I'm not sure whether it knows how much of a fantasy it wants to be or how much of an allegory about the creative process it wants to be. And sometimes it just seems very content to let the joke be that Martin Scorsese is there playing himself. Or let the joke be that, like, James Cameron shows up and gives her a Tiffany box.

There's a whole thing about all the men she's ever inspired give her gifts as sort of tributes. And they all come from Tiffany. She just has this mantle of Fabergette. eggs. Right, right. Tiaras and such. And so they make a joke about, like, is it the, and they're referring to the heart of the ocean, whatever.

So there's a lot of, like, insidery movie stuff. And I think sometimes the movie feels content to sort of rest on those laurels. And other times, it feels like the film has a little bit of an ambition to be, to sort of defy what the setup of the movie is, because the setup of the movie is essentially this beautiful woman is going to kind of baggervance her way into shepherding Albert Brooks's career, right? And I think sometimes the movie admirably sort of like wants to transcend that a little bit and make Sharon Stone's character more complicated and also make the Andy McDowell character a little less typically like shrewish, suspicious wife.

So Andy McDowell's character gets to have. Her own relationship with Sharon Stone, her own career. She's the one whose career flourishes. And it's way more interesting than Albert Brook's stuff because Stephen is fucking insufferable the whole time, which also really makes you like. There's no arc to him whatsoever. Yeah. And it makes you like Sharon Stone's muse Sarah instantly because like the second he meets her in every possible. way. He just wants the easy out. He just, he literally wants a genie to just make it happen for him. And she does nothing but make things difficult for him. And like put him through the ringer. And like that of course makes you like her a lot more. And, uh, there could be like a real rascally or like, uh, stick him in the ribs kind of, uh, way for her to perform it. And she doesn't. She basically is just kind of daffy the whole time in a way that like,

she doesn't realize how much she gets under his skin in a way that I found really funny. Yes, I also, I wrote down to my notes that a lot of the heavy lifting of her characterization beyond Sharon's performance is done by the hairstyle for her, where there's just so much like, oh, she's a muse, she's Greek, she's whatever, her hair has to look the most windswept we've ever seen. And so, like, literally, there's just, like, 18 metric tons of product in her hair, just, like, whispering her hair every which way. At one point, she has, like, a hundred butterfly clips on her head, just sort of, like, making sure that her career, that hair her hair is so sprightly. And so just, like, whatever. And then there's the little twist ties that she has with the little colorful rubber bands in her hair and every other scene. It was, like, take ten things off before you leave the house. Like, God bless the makeup and hairstyling company.

Listen, me exiting quarantine, my personal style is going to be Sarah Little in the muse. She is always in some type of flowy print, the type of thing that is reasonable for you to wear as pajamas or wear on a beach. And she is never doing either. Yes, she is my style in SPO. I think if I have a major problem with the film, though, it's that I don't know, like the stakes are ostensibly, is Stephen going to be able to write this script and to sell this script? And yet, it's so vague when it comes to what this script is supposed to be.

It's set in an aquarium. He wants to cast Jim Carrey, yada, yada. But also, he's not likable enough for Russ to care whether he writes the script or if it ever gets made. You kind of feel like you don't want it to get made. It sounds absolutely terrible. So, like, that's kind of out. Andy McDowell becomes a success so quickly at baking cookies. And, like, first of all, my major impression from this movie is, I want that goddamn oatmeal chocolate chip cookie.

Like, immediately, the way everybody talks about it looks. So, like, but she- Wolfgang Puck loved it. Wolfgang Puck is in several seasons. in this movie playing himself as like he's essentially the fifth lead of this movie after Jeff Bridges. Okay, because her cookies take off because

Sarah gets them into Spago because she knows Wolfgang Puck. Right. And like convinced him to use goat cheese or something. Right. But like, would Spago sell cookies? No. I don't think so. I've never been to Spago.

I can't tell. But like, I don't think so. How fancy is Spago? Because that was the thing I was like, I don't know L.A. enough. I feel like it used to maybe be fancy 20 years ago. Like there's a Spago in like several airports now, right? Like there's a like Wolfgang Puck is like Right.

Like, you know, a very, very like commercial brand at this point. But I do feel like culturally from everything you hear about Spago, it just doesn't sound like the kind of place that would sell cookies. Right. Like you show up and like the waiter arrives at your table and it's like, Tonight our special is a Chilean sea bass with watercress, and our special dessert is a cookie, is a butterscotch chip cookie from Laura, from a screenwriter's house. So, but so, but Andy McDowell's character finds success so quickly and that like, and uncomplicatedly that like there's not really stakes there. And then two-thirds of the way through this movie, when they introduce this idea that Sarah is not a muse, but an escaped mental patient, who is a multiple personality, they say.

It's Dakin Matthews, who is probably best known as the principal from the early seasons of Gilmore Girls, the Chilton headmaster from Gilmore Girls. and then Conchata Tomey, who I know best as the titular mom from Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dad, but she was also in the, I think she was on China Beach, she was on a bunch of things. So anyway, they show up as like, as kind of these like daffy doctors who like show up. Yeah, like laughing the whole time, trying to get into studio tours. Right. Yeah.

And so then all of a sudden it's just like, oh, well, she's an escape mental patient. And that scene ends with, we find that like Sarah has like. repunzled her way out of the second story bathroom and is like gone. And that's essentially the last we ever really see of her. We sort of hear of, you know, other things that she's like, that she's maybe doing. She gets Rob Reiner the movie instead and Albert Brooks's career is down the toilet. I don't really see her again until the end when she shows up as apparently a new personality where she's a studio head now. And like, I don't want to bring realism into this because of course the idea, the whole idea of a movie about a plausible, you know, a Greek muse is that like

it's magical realism or whatever. But I think the movie turns that switch on and off kind of randomly. When it needs to. Like this movie doesn't really have a good grip of farce. Okay. I definitely like this movie more than you do because like I'm, it gives me what I need by Sharon Stone being delightful. And I think, like, the movie needs her to be that delightful, whatever. Okay, my problem with this movie beyond the fact that this movie that everybody's so excited about that Stephen Phillips is working on where he's, you know, Jim Carrey in an aquarium, blah, blah, blah, sounds like a terrible movie that would be dumped in February and trashed, right? right um but everybody's so impressed by the idea my problem with this movie is even by late 90s standards it feels really out of touch yeah in terms of like what's like it like you can see you're everything

that comes out of like stephen's mouth kind of proves the point that he is past his prime right But from the Albert Brooks angle, it feels like, no, but they're all wrong. But it's like, okay, but you think Spago will serve cookies. Right. Like, the only jewelry that exists is Tiffany. It's Tiffany. Right, exactly. It feels so basic male understanding of industry, of fashion, of wisdom.

Women. Right. Right. What do women like? Women like fancy hotels and bathrobes. You know what I mean? Like that kind of the thing. And jewelry.

That's the movie. That's my problem with the movie. And like I, it does feel like it's references to Hollywood except for the cameos, which I do think the cameos are great. Yes. Scorsese is like legitimately. The thing about Martin Scorsese is amazing. He could be a very successful. character actor if you wanted to. If you ever watch quiz show, he's like phenomenally good

in quiz show as like a real, like he's a villainous character. He's not cameoing as himself. But even in this where he's cameoing as himself, he's a goddamn scream. He's so funny. It's the funniest scene in the movie. Yeah, absolutely. He is Martin Scorsese playing the uber cliche of what people think Martin Scorsese was. Do you remember? Especially in the 90s because like he's come down from the Coke days since. Oh, right, but he's still like a goddamn motor mouth. Yeah. Do you remember, I can't remember the product it was selling, but he was in a series of commercials and they would air, I think they aired on television, too, but they would always air during the pre-roll of movies, where it's, like, they're filming like a regular commercial. Like Scorsese steps in to essentially just like direct the commercial. And he's talking to, it's like a mom with like a sick kid in bed or whatever. And she's just like, well, I would have you over here. And the mother should have a motivation. She should have like, you know, she should be hiding liquor bottles around the, around the house and blah, blah, blah.

And just, and playing into this, like, not only the director persona, but again, talking a mile a goddamn minute. And it's, I think he's really attuned to what his persona, her sort of like public persona is. And I just think he's just really, really incredibly funny. whereas and like contrast that with um james cameron's cameo which is very stiff playing a dim bulb right it's so funny right that like james cameron is supposed to just be like stupid and superstitious right right exactly um this the other thing is just like and again i'm very happy accepting magical realism for a movie but like this idea that she is an escaped mental patient And it's just like, okay, who like escapes periodically.

And it's just like, okay, but like, and I guess it's a commentary on Hollywood that this person could sort of like ingratiate herself with so many of the greatest, you know, filmmakers in the town without ever sort of like giving herself away is. And I think a smarter movie too where like the punchline at the end of the movie is she shows up as an executive for a movie. studio. The idea should be that's funny, but also that's probably the perfect job for her. Right. Like, if it was a smarter movie, one that felt more in touch with

like what the business actually is like, or like what the culture of Hollywood is like, and more precise with like trying to skewer it a little bit. Yeah. It would be a lot better. Yes. I think the other thing

is, and again, this comes into where sometimes it feels like it's an allegory of the creative process, where so much of the movie becomes like really little sort of like, oh, I've got to, like, what do I have to do to keep this woman happy? And it's like a lot of just like, a lot of it has to do with him picking up the Waldorf salad or moving her into the guest house or moving her into the house. And like all these sort of like little procedural almost like things. And it's like, I get it, like, the work you have to do to keep your creative juices stimulated or whatever. Like, I get that that part of it is this is an allegory.

And yet, so much of the movie becomes these, like, little menial tasks that he has to do. And it takes up a ton of the movie where, like, so much of the movie is, like, them moving furniture in their house or him, like, grocery shopping for the muse or whatever. And it's just like... It never really feels like... Like, it's coming from the perspective, I think, what you were getting at, or like, it never puts it, like, into perspective or puts a button on it in a way that it feels conscious of that, that, like, the idea is to be successful creatively. You also have to be able to be a person. Right. Or you, like, have to put in the work into your life because maybe that's part of the reason why Andy McDowell is so immediately successful.

Well, she's done that work already, so now, like, she can focus on the creative side. Right. And I guess the idea is that, like, she gets him rattled, and by rattling him sort of opens him up to inspiration and ideas. But that only really happens the one time when she takes him, when she makes him take her to the aquarium. Like, that's really the only sort of, like, moment of inspiration. We don't really see what doing all of these, like, little menial tasks. for her is doing for his creative process beyond just sort of like again rattling him and I don't know it also like again like not to get hung up on the fact this movie he's writing

sounds like dog shit yeah is like it you can't sell the movie's point that like he does finally have some creative success or does come throughout the other side of like I have to be a person I have to actually support my wife when like the movie that he's making never sounds good. Right. Another thing that I missed in my plot description is Rob Reiner shows up at that aquarium when he is, when Stevens initially inspired, and then at one point, Rob Reiner is making the same exact movie that Stephen wants to write.

Because we're meant to think, like, she has now taken this film and given it to Rob Reiner, as sort of like as an active payback against Albert Brooks. Not sure when that could have ever happened based off of the logic of what's going on in this movie. But I also love and think it's funny if the movie had pushed this forward more that the idea of Rob Reiner constantly just lurking in the background as like a Hollywood Specter that could just like be the one that casts it asunder, even though you don't take him seriously as a threat. that was very funny to me

I want to talk about Jeff Bridges for a second because he's in this movie a handful of times he's essentially just playing the best friend he's the and this in this film and Jeff Bridges he doesn't really have a storyline beyond just he's the one who he's essentially

the Sidney Pollock and Eyes Wide Shut of this he's like there's a muse if you go to whatever there's a muse but it's fascinating to watch this movie comes out the year after the Big Lebowski

and yet so much of his career into the 2000s sort of moves into the camp of he's playing the dude or sort of like offshoots of the dude

or like grizzled bridges right where like this is sort of the tail end of that earlier Jeff Bridges and it's just like oh right he didn't always play mumbly grumbly he played he played hoties he played hot sort of like slick kind of guys he was slick in the fisher king he was slick in the fabulous baker boys he was you know um this like dream boat

in the mirror has two faces and bookish dream boat but a dream boat right no well yeah it was that was the the gag of that right where it's like the both of them take off their glasses and they're very uh they're very attractive um and yet four play to him is watching Lawrence of Arabia at 10 o'clock at night. I've got to watch that movie. Excellent movie. But sort of as we move into the 2000s, it's like

even like something like door in the floor, he's sort of like he's slovenly, right? He's a and obviously like the Oscar for Crazy Heart, the nomination for true grit, all this sort of stuff. That's like later period Jeff Bridges. Whereas like this is an interesting reminder of

oh, this was the end of that previous iteration of of Jeff Bridges. Very true. He's quite handsome. I like Andy McDowell in this movie. I just want to say that. Yes.

Like Andy McDowell, one of the actresses I feel like in my lifetime have been sidelined with not great characters, but you always love her. Yeah. She's just such a likable screen presence. She's easily the most likable character in this movie. She can sell you on some, like, bullshit. She can make some, she can give things that are very thin, like this movie. a whole lot of life.

I thought the casting in this movie is pretty canny. I think casting Sharon Stone is obviously very smart. Casting Andy McDowell as the wife, that's a really good move. You cast Mark Forstein as the studio flack and Bradley Whitford as the manager, and it's just like really, you're really hitting the nail on the sort of craven cogs in the system. Also, oddly, West Wing pre-reunion at this point, both sides of the courting Donna on the West Wing coin is Bradley Whitford and Mark Fierstein.

Yeah, it's, I think a lot of this movie, you get the feeling that the inspiration for this movie really did probably come from Albert Brooks in a meeting where somebody said the word edgy like 17 different times. And he's just like, what is edgy? Why does everybody keep saying that? Because that feels like a very, all the scenes with him and Fuerstein's character feel very much pulled from life and also like very inspirational, very much like, oh, this is what made Albert Brooks want to write this movie about the frustrations of trying to make a movie in a kind of changing film landscape. And we're like, there isn't nobody wants to make Lost in America anymore. Nobody wants to make defending your life anymore. that kind of a thing. Well, I mean, we were talking about this off mic a little bit before getting into it.

Albert Brooks's only Oscar nomination, which still kind of surprises me, is supporting actor for broadcast news. He'd never gotten like a screenplay nomination for any of his scripts or any of his films that he made. And like those are, he, I mean, like, I wouldn't say they're cult movies now, but like, there's a whole Albert Brooks fandom. out there that loves like Lost in America defending your life even the mother has its own

the Albert Brooks mother not the Darrener can't imagine we are the fan club for the Darren Aronofsky mother but yes exactly yeah who would Albert Brooks play in Darren Aronofsky's mother

oh god like Kristen Wiggs boss I don't know something or like what Bible figure maybe he's I don't know Noah or something that would be interesting

he is Noah he is the like guide on the way to the house that's like over there he's the realtor who's just sold up the house right right yeah um but yeah it's interesting because Oscars and especially like screenwriters sort of like and again like Albert Brooks is also the famous actor famous director Almost nominated for Drive. Right. Golden Globe nominated for Drive and doesn't get the Oscar nomination for that. But I think you would feel like the most logical Oscar nomination for him to have gotten in his career is for screenwriting.

And I almost mentioned this when we talked about Nicole Hollif Center last week. and sort of the the almost like randomness of what filmmakers get to be the ones who get like early screenplay nominations that are sort of like one-off screenplay nominations

where like usually the screenplay categories are taken up with your best picture nominees, your best picture contenders and then there's like a sprinkling few for kind of like creative outliers and especially you'll find that in like

original screenplay. And this is how, like, Witt Stillman got a nomination for Metropolitan back in the day, or more recently, something like the Big Sick gets a nomination for Kumal Nanjani and Emily Gordon. Or, I'm trying to think of, like, Noah Bombach getting a nomination for the squid and the whale, stuff like that, where, like, you don't really show up elsewhere on the Oscar ballot, but you get a nomination. And for somebody like Noah Bomback, then, that sort of seeds, plants the seeds for a later success with Oscar, with your subsequent movies. We saw that with Wes Anderson, where he got a nomination for the Royal Tenenbaum's in 2001, and that sort of at least puts him on the landscape.

And sometimes that happens for sort of acclaimed creative outliers like that. Like, it didn't happen for, you, like, you don't get a screenplay nomination for Lost in America, even though it's an incredibly acclaimed movie. You didn't get a screenplay nomination for Lovely and Amazing, or, you know, you know what I mean, for Nicole Hollif Center. Well, I wonder if, in Albert Brooks's case, is like, those movies are considered more in that vein now than they were at the time. Yeah. It's also interesting to me that this is the movie he makes After Mother, which Debbie Reynolds was. like considered very close to getting nominated for that movie and like that might have been his first awards narrative and like this movie The Muse has a very um uh like tenuous almost like barely looking down it kind of looking down its nose at the Oscars a little bit in like the way that like awards and stuff are considered and like I could absolutely see Albert Brooks's experience like in the awards race for his previous movie informing this movie in a way that he's I mean I don't want to use a word like

thirsty for it like clearly eager for it or thinks that sure deserves it but is looking askance at the whole awards thing the timing of Albert Brooks's mother is somewhat unlucky for him right where it's 1996 which we've talked about before where the studio movies kind of bomb out that year and that is the year that Oscar turns fully to the Indies that year. So the original screenplay nominees in 1996, four out of the five of them are best picture nominees. And that's only back when there were only five Best Picture nominees. So Fargo, Jerry McGuire, Secrets and Lies, Shine are all original screenplay nominees. And three out of those four are Indies. So if Albert Brooks was trying to, was, you know, maybe going for the indie screenplay slot, you're real

lot of luck in 1996 if you're not a best picture nominee. And then the fifth one that year was John Sales' as Lone Star, which gets to be, that's your outlier. That is your critically acclaimed autore screenplay. And it's sales gets it instead of Brooks that year, which makes sense because Lone Star was a very big critical favorite that year. And it's just sort of just a little bit of unlucky timing. Maybe if, you know, mother was the year before that or the year after that, maybe his fortunes are a little bit different. And Debbie Reynolds is as well. Yeah.

And Debbie Reynolds is. I'm pretty sure that is the era where we get the Debbie Reynolds impersonating Merrill video, which like if you have never seen a like complete dragging, watch Debbie Reynolds impersonate Merrill's acting style. Well, and it's funny because Carrie Fisher and Merrill were very good friends. Meryl played Carrie Fisher, obviously, or a version of Carrie Fisher in Postcards. So you think it's just a mother hating her child's friends? Kind of.

It felt that way, right? It kind of felt that way. Sort of how I always talk about Noah Bombax while we're young, being a movie made by somebody who hates his girlfriend's friends. It does feel like that way a little bit, just sort of because, like, yeah, Carrie and Meryl were, you know, obviously very close. And I think, and I also feel like I can imagine Debbie maybe feels some sort of way about postcards from The Edge in general. But yeah, that always, that was always an interesting wrinkle whenever I watched that clip. I'm just like, oh, right. Like, that's, that's Carrie's good pal.

Yeah. This movie in awards, though, it feels so like Albert Brooks is saying all of these people are idiots, but also he doesn't, like, he is only like a foot. in in like understanding the ethos too. Right. Like Mike Furstein has the couch from saving Private Ryan and like is very proud of it in this movie. Yeah. That joke should be funnier than it is.

It's funnier me saying it than it is in the movie. But then like it opens with him winning some type of humanitarian prize. Part of the joke is like there's nothing about him that is a humanitarian. I mean, they give them this prize and that's the ethos of Hollywood, right? but literally the awards are called the humanitarian awards I was like okay you could have like maybe you were just trying

to avoid shitting on one particular group in particular but it could have maybe also had some specificity because there is so much vagueness in terms of like Hollywood you know yeah the creative process in this movie you could tell this really making me like this movie even less

than what we talking about it. I don't mean to. There's a lot of, I will say, there's a lot of really references and sort of jokes in this movie that caught me off guard in kind of a good way. It's not every day that you see a movie with a Margo Hemingway joke. It's just not. Like, you're not going to get that. You can also really tell that this movie was written in the

wake of the, like, during the Titanic Oscar wave where, like, at the beginning, Brooks's character wins his award and says, I'm the king of the room, and it's just like goes over like a lead balloon but and then of course you have the Cameron cameo but there's a lot of Titanic

references in this movie Okay but Sarah's a recommendation to James Cameron is to stay away from the water he's not listening to her Avatar 2 is going to Pandora's oceans it's all going to

be underwater we've all seen that photo of Kate Winslet and her wings well but not Now I'm skeptical as to how successful it's going to be if Sharon, Sharon as the muse told him to stay away from the water. So we'll see. Yeah. I also don't think that an actress who is named Sharon should play a character named Sarah.

It's very crazy. They should have changed that. They should have just let her be called Sharon. They should have had her character be named Susan and then it could be a parent trap joke. Watching this movie the whole time, I was that British weakest link character. contestant who didn't know who Greta Toonberg was and it was just like a charon.

I also thought the idea of Stephen Wright playing a character named Stan Spielberg, who is Stephen Spielberg's cousin, was a very funny payoff to that set piece where it's like where Brooks doesn't get to park in the lot for the Stephen Spielberg building and he has to like traverse

this entire Hollywood Backlod. The scene of him walking up that hill where it looks like his legs are just like a thousand pounds each was very funny. I thought that was, I thought that was some good comedy. What are some of the other cameos in this? Jennifer Tilly shows up very early. Lorenzo Llamas. Lorenzo Llamas, who like, oh, that's right. That's in the scene where Fuerstein is telling Albert Brooks essentially that like nobody likes him as a writer anymore. Everybody thinks what he writes this shit. And then Lorenzo Llamas comes up and he's just like, I read your draft. It's brilliant.

Good for Lorenzo Llamas, I guess, for sending himself up like that. Sybil Shepard shows up very early. She's presenting the award at the beginning as herself. We talked about how Wolfgang Puck is just a full-on supporting actor in this movie. I was very confused by Los Angeles food in this movie. At one point, Andy McDowell and Sharon Stone go to a restaurant and their plates are just, like, a slice of watermelon, a slice of melon, and, like, a leaf. And, like, that's their entree.

It doesn't even look like they've touched it. It's true. I mean, jokes about L.A. food felt very 90s, too. Just, like, what do they eat in L.A.? It's, like, a single piece of sushi with a dot of, you know, colored goo on it or whatever. All those, all those, like, very sort of, like, hoary jokes about, it's a play. That in cookies, apparently. Yeah, a plate with, like, you know, four dots of balsamic vinegar on a plate or whatever, and that's your meal.

What if her cookie business was Andy and Vangies get these cookies? Get those cookies, get those cookies. See, you're already showing a lot more marketing acumen than the muse in this movie. Vangy McDowell. Also, this movie mentions famous Amos so many times. Like, apparently, Sharon's got like eight billion stories about famous Amos and Mrs. Fields. She's just like, what's hanging with that. And I'm like, do we still eat Mrs. Fields' cookies?

Do we know them as Mrs. Fields cookies? I will say, up until a few years ago, my favorite, you know how every city has a good mall and a less good mall? My favorite in Buffalo was always the less good mall because it was quieter and it was, you know, whatever. And at some point, it still had stores. It does not still have stores anymore. It is sad to go to this mall. But up until a few years ago, it had a Mrs. Fields kiosk in the middle of the mall.

Those cookies were good, I'm going to tell you. And that's what I would get before I would go to a movie. I would go and I would get a Mrs. Fields cookie and I would take it to the movie theater with me. And I would have a good old time with my Mrs. Fields cookie. But, yeah. Also, famous Amos aren't good cookies. No, that's the whole point. That's like basically cookie crisp.

And yet, apparently, famous. Amos Amos is the one that the muse wants her to emulate, and Mrs. Fields is the entity she wants her to crush like a bug. It's very funny. Joe, now would be a great time to break to our ad break for Famous Amos Cookies. Oh my God. Cookie companies,

like literally, if you are with a cookie company and want to sponsor this podcast, we'll do it. We will shit on Famous Amos. I will, yeah, we will say whatever you want us to say. Just sponsor us for cookies, for sure. Famous Amos is terrible. You

should have these cookies instead. Let's talk about the globes. I want to get it. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, please, please. Okay, so Sharon deservedly got a Golden Globe nomination for her performance in The Mews. She loses to Janet McTeer for Tumbleweeds, which was like a Sundance movie, huge critical success, blah, blah, blah,

had a long trajectory. Janet McTeer gets the Oscar nomination. Sharon Stone is also nominated with Julian Moore for an ideal husband. We could have talked about Julianne Moore's 1999. I'll be back on Sundays with Kate to talk about that movie soon. Look out for that. Julia Roberts was nominated for Notting Hill. And spectacularly, Rees Witherspoon was nominated for election.

Hell yeah. Should have won that Globe. Hell yeah. Okay, this story with Sharon Stone's nomination has been getting re-brought into discussion because of all of the shit going down with the globes. And, like, the globes may cease to exist soon. And, like, they've given certainly good reason. God, what if that was the last Golden Globes ceremony ever?

That's sad. The 2000, the 2021 Golden Globes, if that's the last one ever. To be honest, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association can go down in flames. We can have another award show that has the same level of impact instead of the golden globe. You say that, though, but someone's got to put in the work of making that happen. Because, like, as it stands, the sags are not that right now. You could make the sags that, but they're not that right now. And critics' choice, because they've been on the networks, they are, have a cold in the ground before I, I will be cold in the ground before I let the critics' choice become the new golden globes.

That is what I will say. Yeah, because they, they're cringy. I mean, like, they're probably, they're not like as they don't have the problems that the Hollywood foreign press. They're a sham in a different way. I'll just say it. Third November. Right, right. The Hollywood Ford Press Association is for stories like this one, we're about to tell a problem on top of numerous other things, but I think they're going down.

Anyway, we can have another show instead of the Globes where famous people get trophies and get drunk and affect the Oscar race. Again, just make it happen. Do it. Do it before we get. All right. Anyway, we all know that the Globes are very, swayed by the whims of plain tickets and gifts and things. Trinkets. In many ways, they're like the muse. You give them a Tiffany box full of something and they will...

That's what I'm saying. This story for this movie is particularly funny to me, the layers of it. So as part of the campaigning, while the Globe's voting was in session. So it's not like this was just part of promo for the movie. It was during the Globe's voting calendar. Right. October Films sends all of the members watches from Coach as part of a, like, FYC campaign during the voting period. It gets attributed to Sharon Stone sent them when she didn't.

I'm sure what it was is like, it wasn't just a watch in a box. Like, it was probably part of a package of, here is this. this, FYC, Sharon Stone, right? And it gets conflated to being Sharon Stone's fault. No, it was the studio. The studio bounces back and says, oh, these were

given to us for free anyway. It's not like we spent $400 for each of these watches to try to get a nomination for Sharon Stone. Also, though, this was the year that October had been purchased

by and sort of subsumed into to USA films. So that also feels significant in that, like, you have this new parent company trying to make a splash with the Golden Globes and, you know, willing to sort of go all out and play that game to get it. But, yeah, then all of a sudden it becomes Sharon Stone's trying to buy herself a Golden Globe, which... With these shitty watches.

Yeah. Yeah. And then the president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association made everybody give them back. Right. They had to give them all back. And Sharon Stone still gets nominated. They, like, said this whole thing of, like, absolutely not. It was not part of her nomination. The report that I read said that the watches were received three days before voting close, which, like, if it's even a week-long voting period, I do have a hard time believing that it was, like, so. the reason she got a nomination. And it's also a great performance, too. Well, and she's Sharon Stone. Like, the Golden Globes have nominated Sharon Stone a bunch of times. She had just been nominated the year before for the Mighty as a supporting performance. I would love to talk about that movie. We should. She had, obviously, she had won the Golden Globe for Casino. Like, the Golden Globes,

the Hollywood Foreign Press, had already liked Sharon Stone. Like, you could conceive of them nominating her without needing the watches. I'm sure, as they have felt many times, over the years that like they you know they appreciated the gifts anyway but uh right yeah and like the muse was a very late summer movie it was like right before um labor day but like she's nominated it's like it wouldn't have been like the release date was a problem because she's nominated against julia roberts for nodding hill which was a summer movie like right right but all of it i think illustrates not necessarily just the global Bob's bad behavior, but the studio's complicity in that behavior where it's like, well, maybe

they're, like, the studios play a part because they are still playing into this. You can't bribe yourselves. Right. Yeah. You have to do the bribing. Right. There's got to be somebody to do the bribing. And studios are quite happy to do that.

Yeah. Regardless, Sharon deserves the nomination. We love Sharon. listeners have previously asked me what are the great wild follows of actresses on Instagram if you aren't following Sharon Stone you're out of your mind

she's just sensational I mean yeah like I always think of you've seen that Kathy Griffin routine about the Amfar benefit right? Oh my god this is so great talk about this

okay so like it's from a very early one of the I think maybe the first Kathy Griffin's stand-up special that aired on Bravo called The D-List. This was before she had the show called My Life on the D-List. This is sort of the chicken before the egg of that. Kathy tells her big sort of like every special that she has, especially in the early years when they were still good,

before they sort of devolved into like I went to Cher's house. Love you, Kathy, but it's true. I talk to Kathy as if she's a listening to our podcast. But each of the specials would have like one sort of of like centerpiece story. And the one time it was when she met all the American Idol kids. And the one time is when she went to see Celine in Vegas. And this one, the centerpiece story is Kathy was speaking at an Amphar benefit that was attended by a bunch of big celebrities. And she was supposed to do like a certain amount of comedy. And she talks about how awkward that was sort of having to follow the doctor talking about all this like AIDS research being done. And she's just like, and now funny lady, Kathy Griffith. And which is funny because if you ever saw that HBO documentary, the battle for Amphar, like the doctor that they focus on in that is that woman. Anyway, she's at the Amphar Benefit.

Sharon Stone is speaking also at this thing. And Sharon apparently tells this whole story, this sort of like long meandering story about meeting John Lennon. years before he died. And at that, during that same speech, um, sort of gives this like spoken word rendition of imagine, which, so she takes out a piece of paper and she goes like this, totally seriously. She goes like this. Imagine there's no heaven. It's easy if you try. No hell below us. Above us only sky. Okay. If you thought 2020 was the first time that celebrities terrorized you with the song Imagine. It's so...

For tone deafness. Right. So Sharon speaks. She does the Imagine thing. Kathy's supposed to speak after this, like, little intermission. And apparently she says during the intermission that Rosie O'Donnell came up to her. And she was just like, you believe what she just fucking did? And is then trying to goad Kathy.

into, she's just like, I'll give you $1,000 if you go up there and say the lyrics to Itsy Bitsy Spider. And that is like rallying. She's like getting the other celebrities. She's like Darren Starr's in for $1,500, like that kind of thing. All right. So then Darren Starr, the creator of sex in the city, he walks over to my table and he says, I'm in for five. And I said, how do you even know about this? And then he goes, oh, Rosie's going table to table. But then also, the other part of that story was that Kathy had been, you know, nervous about doing comedy and he has benefit and blah, blah, blah. And she had talked to Rosie about it.

And Rosie's just like, if you don't want to do it, don't do it. And then so she's, Kathy says this to Sharon. And apparently she says Sharon goes, Rosie O'Donnell is afraid you're going to be funnier than her and steal her. Thunder. This was the beauty of the old Kathy Griffin stuff. It was just like tell and tales out of school and celebrities be in Caddy with one another. It's just like it's the greatest fucking story ever. But I will always...

Here's the thing. Sharon Stone is both the butt of the joke and the hero of that story because Sharon Stone is right. That's the whole Sharon Stone thing. She gets up there and like, but I will always, always, always think of her now saying, imagine there's no heaven. Like that kind of thing. But also, you're right. But that's the Sharon thing.

It's just like she's absolutely ridiculous. And yet absolutely like you are on her side anyway. She's right. Rosie was intimidated by Kathy. It's so funny though. It's so amazing. Find it. If it's on if it's not on YouTube, I think you can like rent it on crime for like $3 or something like that.

It's worth a rental. Like it's Kathy Griffin, the D list to like find it. Can we talk a little bit about. like the ethos of basic instinct for Sharon Stone. We didn't really get into that. And I feel like we won't have a ton of opportunities to talk about Sharon Stone specifically. Basic instinct, like,

and the excerpt from her book that Vanity Fair published went into a lot of, like, in detail with what that did for her career, she had to fight for it, like, the repercussions she faced. But, like, I don't know. You watch that. fucking performance now and it's like it is I mean that movie is an Oscar nominee so like it had to have been in some conversations but like also at the time

there were people that thought she was legitimately terrible in the movie which is I mean sexism at play yeah I don't know I rewatched it recently it's getting a re-release in theaters I will show up in my mask and go see that in a theater. Like, I love that movie. And her performance is like one of the best performances of the 90s.

Right. And you, I think the fact that she wasn't Oscar nominated for it is explicable in that like there are certain subject matters that they, especially in the 90s, were like trepidacious about. And obviously, like, a sex thriller was going to seem like, oh, well, that's not really in consideration. That's not the kind of, like, you know, thing we're going for. And there's history of that back through, you know, like, body heat for Kathleen Turner and whatsoever. And, like, you know, these things that are, like, really, really well, reviewed. But they're just like, well, that's not in our box. That's not in our bucket.

And that's fine. But, like, the critics were rallying around her. Certain critics were rallying around her, at least. The ones who, you know, sort of got it. The people who get that movie, the people who get that, like, and I mean, there was also controversy at the time that she was, like, yet another murderous lesbian on film, blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah. I think the people that got that movie at the time, and I think we, there's a lot, there's still people who are averse to this movie. And, like, I get that the movie is a lot.

But, like, there were critics at the time who get that this movie is kind of unpacking what an entire genre does. the whole like grossness of a lot of these male characters like you watch that movie now and you think of vertigo which like vertigo is so unsettling vertigo is a movie that is about grooming and yet like the pastiche the genre the way we are as a culture like that's not how people necessarily read the movie and a lot of those type of movies audiences are always on the side of the male character who is doing very very. very gross, bad things. And, like, basic instinct is all about unpacking that.

And it makes it even more challenging because the female character is a psychopathic murderer. Right. Right. Um, but, like, truly what a star making performance, like, on a whole level of, like, if you want to talk about, like, top 10 star making performances, like, oh, yeah. Consider Sharon Stone in that lineup. Well, again, as I said, it's essentially like paved the way for her to have her whole career through the 90s, which is, you know, pretty cool. And it's a really interesting career. And it was also a double-edged sword, too.

And for some of it that was not her fault, like the infamous shot of her crotch was not her. She had no play in that. And, you know, it was used against her. And I think the way that the public treated her from that, and especially, like, the press treated her for that didn't help her in the long run. It's, there's an ugliness to the way that Sharon Stone has sort of been treated throughout her career. And she's had, you know, many great successes and, you know, had made a lot of, like, gotten a lot of lead roles and whatever. But the resistance to giving her her due is pretty

gross to me. Yeah. So, yeah. Even to the point of, like, basic, the way she was treated for basic instinct, too, which everybody also needs to go see basic instinct too, because, like, that movie is an absolute drain wreck. And, like, she is completely fascinating in that movie. And I think nothing that is horrible about that movie is her fault.

But, like, it all got placed upon her shoulders. And, like, the sexism she received for that movie of, like, the audacity of, like, the audacity of her, you know, having these sex scenes and these and all the nudity for that movie at her age was absolutely gross at the time. Though, like, trust me when I say, basic instinct two needs a camp, midnight revival, rowdy screening, re-appraisal.

I've never seen it, so I would absolutely, um, she is absolutely giving you camp excellence in that movie. Nice. Awesome. She knows the movie she's in. Is there anything else we want to say about the muse before we sort of transition into the IMDB game? Um, uh, I want to taste those cookies. Yes.

If those are truly landmark cookies, baked in Andy McDowell's kitchen, show me the receipts, they look like regular cookies. Yes. Also, I love when, like, the significant. fire for a business like that going to like the big time is they have the big um rack on the rack on wheels for the trays for the cookies just like in their kitchen and it's just like that is the sign of a legitimate baking business that is a short hand for like scaling up yeah yeah yeah for real all right should we move into the i mdb game yeah chris tell uh tell them what it's about you guys you know it you know what we do here but in case you are a new listener every

week 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 for a referral of hints and cameos and cookies. Indeed, indeed. All right. Chris, do you want to give or guess first?

Uh, how about I guess first? All right. I usually choose to give, so why don't I guess? Okay, so I had a few options for this. I wanted to go sort of down the Albert Brooks route. He's in some, you know, big major movies, and he's made a bunch of major movies, but he was also the voice of a tiger in Dr. Doolittle. Which Dr. Doolittle, you ask, well, the 1998 Dr. Doolittle starring Eddie Murphy.

and I don't think we've done Eddie Murphy for the TV game yet. So, give me Eddie Murphy. Eddie Murphy actually feels like it would be really difficult, though I don't think I'm going to be like, I don't think anything on Eddie Murphy's is going to be niche, right?

Because, like, he's the headliner of all of his movies. He's directed before. He's an Oscar nominee. So, like, I don't think, like, I don't know, tower heist is going to be there. Is there any voice performances? No.

Okay, no Shrek, no Moulon. Right. I'm going to throw out his Oscar nomination, Dreamgirls. Correct, Dreamgirls is there. Incredible, should have won. Because of the sequel, I'm going to say, Coming to America. Correct, coming to America.

Okay, Beverly Hills Cop. No, not Beverly Hills Cop. Okay, so none of the other, it would be the first one and not the other ones. Okay. The Nutty Professor? Yes, the Nutty Professor. Very good. Okay.

Almost there. Okay, so how do I want to break this down? It's not going to be, I don't think it's going to be Dolomite is my name. Netflix almost never shows up. I don't think it's going to be like Pluto Nash or even Bofinger. Is it Dr. Doolittle? It's not Dr. Doolittle. That's Strike 2. All right.

So now you're going to get a year as your hint. Your year is 1989. Okay. So this is post-Beverly Hills cop. Okay. It's not one of the stand-ups, is it? No. Okay.

89. It can't be another 48 hours. When did that come out? Another 48 hours is 1990. Okay. And Boomerang is in the 90s because that has Holly Berry. Yep. 89.

Is it... Oh, no, it's going to be... It's going to be the movie he also directed, which would make sense from, like, an SEO standpoint. It's Harlem Knights. Harlem Knights. Yes, very good. Yes. Written and directed by Eddie Murphy. It's him and Richard Pryor on the poster. Yeah. Harlem Knights.

Very good. Cool. Good job. All right. For you, I went the route as other cinematic muses. You were talking about all movies dealing with muses are wild. I thought of Mighty Aphrodite, which has a whole framing device of Greek theater. And, of course, basically the Aphrodite of the movie is Oscar winner Mira Sorvino.

Yay. Okay. I can do Miroservino. All right. Whitey Aphrodite is definitely one of them. It is there. Romeo and Michelle's high school union is definitely one of them. It is also there.

Okay. Is the Guillermo del Toro movie Mimic one of them? It is not. Damn, okay. There is no Mimic, shockingly, because she's first built and Mimic. All right. Mimic has a cult following. It's also Gierma D'Oro, but not there.

All right. Now I'm trying to think if there were other movies that she was lead in, or if I start going for supporting stuff for Mira. Because she played a lot of, like, wives. We talked about she was a wife in Reservation Road. Is one of them beautiful girls? No. Okay.

Well, that's two stories. strikes so oh it is actually yeah okay so your years are 1998 and 2004 2004 is pretty late in the game 1998 so the year after romey and michel lisa kudrow goes to do opposite of sex and i will say mirro Sorvino is on the poster for this movie oh is it uh you remember this poster is it the one with her and chow young fat yes what is it called is it the replacement killers it is indeed the replacement killers okay 2004 what is the poster by the way for the replacement killers uh it is chow young fat uh with mirror sorvino staring very closely and chow yun fat is pointing a gun at you uh-huh oh i the genre of posters where they're

pointing a gun at you there's a lot of those yeah and the lady is standing very close yes all right 2004 so definitely we're into the sort of already into the leaner years uh is it a memorable movie a no not at all we have talked about this movie before for the lead star who is like the only thing on the poster like looking askance and fraught um this is a perform a very famous performer who we've talked about the times that they would go off type and that always brought some like type of buzz except for like movies like this. Mir Sorvino is second build, I should say.

So is it a Meg Ryan movie? It's not. It's a comedic actor who would oftentimes get a lot of attention when playing dramatic. Robin Williams. Yes. 2004. Is it like Jacob the Liar?

It is not Jacob the Liar. Jacob the Liar, I think, is a 99. Yeah, I think you're right. I think you're right. 04, Robin Williams. Um... This is definitely bottom of the barrel, Robin Williams. He's doing a drama.

I think it's a thriller, actually. Is it one of the ones where he's, like, a terrible dad? No. All right, so this is a couple years after 2002. when he does insomnia and one-hour photo. It's a bad... He's not the villain of this movie. He's definitely the protagonist.

Oh, why is this not coming to me? Poster suggests he's going on the run or something, or he's hiding. Oh. Are you sure I know what this movie is? I'm sure you know what this is. We definitely brought this up in the one-hour photo episode. Okay.

Um The Robin Williams is first build Second build is Mirosorvino Third build is Jim Kovitzel I don't know How about I read you the IMDB Logline for it? Okay

Set in a world with memory recording implants Alan Hackman is a cutter Someone with the power to A final edit over people's Recorded Histories His latest assignment is one that puts him in danger. I'm not lying to you when I say I have no familiarity with this. The title is the blank blank, and I use both blanks in the logline.

Read the logline again? Said in a world with memory recording implants, Alan Hackman is a cutter, someone with the power of final edit over people's recorded histories. The final edit. The final cut. The final. Christ. I've never heard of that movie before. You have heard of this movie? We've talked about it in like the lump of Robin William

Sirius movies. That is so rude to Mira Sorvino. That's so rude to Mira Sorvino that that is on her known for. Are you kidding me? She's second build. Yeah, but like she's first built and mimic. I know. There's also like at first sight, son of Sam. Right. What else would I have guessed? I should have guessed summer of Sam at one time. point yeah yeah that's wild that's crazy anyway anyway that's the iMtb game okay one more thing and we totally

forgot to mention this but it's absolutely in my notes the thoroughly unwell elton john song over the closing credits of this movie oh my god tells the story of the movie because the song is called the muse because apparently elton john did all the music for this movie it's literally just like she walks into your life and then She wears her hair weird It's just like It tells you the entire plot Of this movie

It's so Fucking bizarre And it's written by like And then she makes Your wife make cookies It's like You got Elton John And Bernie Toppin

These like once in a generation You know Musical talents or whatever And then you're gonna put them To the task Of summarizing the muse For your soundtrack That's because

She's my muse Seriously? Amazing. It didn't get a glow in the club. And then your wife baked some cookies. Like, it's just so fucked up. It's just bizarre. Maris Scorsese is really funny.

James Cameron's afraid of water. Be careful who you... And that's what makes her the muse. You give some watches to some Hollywood foreign press people. Yeah. It's, uh... It's crazy. It's insane.

Do you think Sharon made that call? She called up Elton. Like, Elton, we need a song. Do you have five minutes? Literally. Like, can you and Bernie just, like, whip up something on your lunch break? Couldn't believe it as I was listening to it. I was like, is this?

Because I, like, I could tell it was Elton John, but I was like, did he write this about the? And then I looked it up, and I saw that the title of the song was the muse, and I was just like, oh, no. Oh, God, Elton. That was not Golden Glor nominated. I was up at the Globes for announcing the original song nominees. From The Muse, The Muse, music by Bernie Toppin, or music by Elton John, lyrics by Bernie Toppen. Oh, God.

Of all the, like, we talk about the songs of 1999 and the ones that were nominated and the ones that we're not, like, I will never bring up Elton Jones, The Muse, in that conversation. I will say that. first episode on the books for our focus features miniseries Joe tell the listeners what they have to look forward to if they haven't been following us on Twitter oh this is very exciting so we've gotten through our

October films entry for the muse the next one we will jump right into that first year of focus features with possession directed by Neil Lebutte starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Aaron Eckhart a movie I've never seen that'll be interesting for me. I haven't either. And Jennifer Ely. It'll be our first Jennifer Ely. You are very excited for our first Jennifer Ely. I love that. I love her so much. She's wonderful. We will follow that up with Ang Lee's

Lust Caution, which will be very fun, sexy time had by all, for sure. Her first non-English language film. Yeah, yes. That'll be great. Then, 2013's The Place Beyond the Pines, Ryan Gosling Brett the Cooper Derek Sienfrance Lots to talk about there Not a movie

It's a divisive movie So I will enjoy that conversation For short And then we're going to wrap it up With 2018's Boy Erased With Lucie Hedges And Nicole Kidman

And intolerant Russell Crow It'll be fun It's going to be a good month You guys It's going to be a good month So we are excited to have you all on board and listening and keep listening because it'll be fun.

Yay. Oh, yeah, right. Take us home. That is our episode. If you want more This Had Oscar Buzz, you can check out the Tumblr at this had oscarbuzz.com. You should also follow our Twitter account at Had underscore Oscar underscore Buzz. I just bit my tongue as I was saying that. So if I stumble over these next few sentences, understand it's because my tongue is currently in pain and swelling.

So that'll be fun. Chris, where can the listeners find you in your stuff? You can find me baking cookies 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, read-spelled, R-E-I-D. I'm also 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 Mavius for their technical guidance.

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but we hope you'll be back next week for more buzz. Deep up to my neck in heavy water, I conjure up my muse. She's my means to achieve a simple quota. When it's made a break Oh, make no mistake Oh, she appears Like lightning in the bottom

I catch the spark Oh, and she lights the dark The nuts undone Oh, the ideas come Like two hands, I'm a throttle.