This Had Oscar Buzz - 217 – Mary Reilly

Episode Date: October 31, 2022

Happy Halloween, Garys! Get ready for lots of whispers and accents as we close spooky season with one of our oft-referenced favorites, 1996′s uberflop Mary Reilly. A riff on the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde tale starring Julia Roberts as an Irish maid who falls for both personalities of the mad scientist, the film was … Continue reading "217 – Mary Reilly"

Hey, this had Oscar Buzz listeners. We are here, Chris and me, to kick off this episode with a little bit of bonus content for your nerves. We're going to be playing a game. You know how we love our games. You know how I love your stories. And you know how we love our games. We're going to be playing a game with our friends at Vulture for the next several months all the way through Oscar season. And you, Gary's, need to be playing along with us.

This is exactly it. We're going to invite you, Gary's to play along, along with the readers of Vulture and staff members of Vulture and various people with a movie fantasy league game that is going to run all the way through award season. And I am here to tell you about it, and we're going to be providing updates for it every week on this head Oscar buzz throughout Oscar season. Chris, I'm very excited about this. Joe, I am so excited about this. Will you tell us more about it? I will. Okay.

Listeners, listen up. Have you been looking for a way to spend the next four months supporting your favorite films doing basic math and inevitably getting mad at awards voters? Lord knows I do. How dare the National Board of Review not recognize TAR? Exactly. Preferably in a gamified context that pits you against friends, fellow Vulture readers, a fellow this had Oscar buzz, Gary's, some of your favorite entertainment journalists, Chris, me, whoever. Good news, Garys, because Vulture is, bringing back the Vulture Movies Fantasy League. They did this a couple years ago. It was very fun. And this time around, they let me help design it for awards season. So, you know, that's pretty fun. You mean to

say that this is partly masterminded by the one and only Joseph Reed? It is. I hesitate to stick my head in the lion's mouth and offer myself up for nitpicks and criticisms, of course. The lion of that mouth being,

of course, Lydia Tar. Yes, of course. Listeners, if you're at all familiar with fantasy sports, the concept is very similar. But if you're not, don't worry, it's very easy to grasp how it's all going to work. It has nothing to do with athletes at all unless we're talking about, once again, Lydia Tar. Our team at Vulture have assembled a list of movies from 2022, some of which have already been released, a lot of which are opening in the next two months. And we've assigned all of those with a dollar value based on things like expected box office performance, awards potential, assorted other factors.

So, for example, a movie like the Fableman's, or Avatar the Way of Water, or even an already opened but hugely Oscar-buzzed movie like everything everywhere all at once, they're all going to be worth more than, say, a man called Otto, or cha-cha real smooth, or my beloved bones in all, all the bones will be available for a economical price, I will say. Mrs. Harris goes to Paris, priceless. 100%. If you want to put Mrs. Harris Coast of Paris on your roster, you will be fully able to do so. So to play the game, you will have a budget of $100 fake dollars to put together a team of eight movies. There's obviously going to be some strategy at play. You won't have enough money to just load up your team with all the big guns.

You can't just do fablemen's and top gun and banshees of Inasharon and everything everywhere. You know, you're going to have to be smart about it. You'll need to mix and match between big ticket items and smaller little diamonds. in the rough that you might think might perform well either at the box office or an award season. So a few things, some of the places, some of the time. Right. Exactly. Exactly. Once you've selected your team, you can start to accrue points. The movies will score points based on a bunch of different categories, including but not limited to box office earnings, box office earnings from the point that you select on forward. You can't, you know, go retroactively collect all of those sweet, sweet top gun dollars.

We have already, that's already a known quantity. It's no fun guessing what's already happened. But we also include Critics Awards prizes, precursors like the Golden Globes, the Independent Spirit Awards, Guild Awards, and then ultimately the Oscars. The whole contest culminates on Oscar night, and whichever team has accumulated the most points wins. What do you win? You're asking. Yes. I'm sure

aside from the obvious prize that everybody is gunning for here is an actual Oscar aside from the actual Oscar that players of the game will win what else will they win? I mean bragging rights are big obviously

bragging rights are the ceiling of what I who am absolutely going to be participating I can only win bragging rights because it would not be kosher for me to compete for prizes but all of you all else bragging rights are big but also first place gets a TCL 55 inch 5 series smart Roku television second place gets a stream bar and wireless base bundle which like nice work if you can get it right nice way to walk you would walk away from Oscar night with the second coolest thing to a best actress trophy I think if you ask me so uh not too bad I will say so listeners if you want to play and really honestly

you should go to moviegame.vulture.com. From there, you can click a link to get the complete rules, including all of the ways you'll be able to earn points, all of the point values on all of the little things that will earn your points throughout the season, as well as a full list of available movies and their dollar values at an overview of the scoring categories. And then when you're ready, you can draft a team. So listen, this is the important part. The window for participation opens on Monday, October 31st, and then slams shut on Monday, November 21st. So pick your team by then. It behooves you, I will say, to sign up early, since you can only accrue box office points for your selected movies on ticket sales that occur after you've submitted your ballot.

So, for example, if you draft Black Panther Wakanda Forever, before it opens on November 11th, you'll get points for its full box office performance the whole way through. If you select it however the week after it opens, you'll only accrue points based on its box office performance from that point on. So you'll miss the sweet, sweet, fat opening weekend money. Each Tuesday, the updated leaderboard will be available on Vulture. You'll receive a weekly newsletter from me, your good friend Joe Reed, summarizing the big movies and events and developments of the week and how they affect the standings. And then Chris and I will also be talking about updates throughout the season right here on this head Oscar Buzz. So, Chris, I'm super excited. I'm super jazzed.

I really hope the Garys will all participate. I'm excited to see who you pick because I know you are quite the competitive sort. And so even with just bragging rights online. My strategic wheels have already started rolling. You are very smart to deduce me as a strategic player. So yes, I hope that the Garys are also cracking their knuckles and in it to win it. The most fun part, honestly, I've played fantasy football for the last, like, 15 years or so. And the fun part of fantasy football isn't necessarily, like, you know, picking Josh Allen, who's the bill's quarterback and is the best player in football right now.

It's not, like, it's fine. Just agree with me. It's fun picking the best players. But, like, the real bragging rights comes from, like, picking that diamond in the rough, who maybe was undervalued by some people, but really, comes through. And there are going to be some movies that you're going to be able to pick up for $5 or $2 or even a bargain at a dollar. And it's going to earn you some points throughout Oscar season, and it may prove to be the difference in the standings. So go check it out. It is moviegame.vulture.com. You can start choosing your teams. Basically now, it opens on

Monday, October 31st. You're going to be listening to it by them. And pick your team by November 21st, and we'll all have a really extra fun time throughout Oscar season. Get competitive. Get competitive. You'll like it. You'll love it. You'll get into fantasy sports, maybe. I don't know.

No promises. Okay. Thank you for your time. We'll be back here. We'll continue to provide updates, like we said, throughout the Oscar season. And enjoy the rest of this episode on Mary Riley. Oh, oh, wrong house. No, the right house.

We want to talk to Maryland Hick. I'm from Canada water. In the house of Dr. Henry Jekyll. In the house of Dr. Henry Jekyll. Good morning, sir. chambermaid named Mary Riley. I feel safe here, as all. I have decided to take on Anna's system.

His name is Mr. Edward Hyde, and I intend to give him the run of the house. Did you see his face? He came out of the dark, like he was made of it. Most people are afraid of them, but you're not, are you? No, sir, I'm not. Mary Riley! Hello and welcome to the This Had Oscar Buzz podcast, the only podcast under surveillance by the NSA.

Every week on this set, Oscar Buzz will 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're here to perform the autopsy. I'm your host, Chris Fyle, and I'm here, as always, with David Hasselhoff's Broadway, Jekyll and Hyde, stand by Joe Reed. I wish I knew anything about that production so that I could come in here with a lyric. You don't need to know a thing.

I always, I don't think it has anything to do with each, they have anything to do with each other, but whenever I am reminded that there was a Broadway Jekyll and Hyde, I always think of the Jekyll and Hyde novelty theme restaurant that is in Times Square that I, or was in Times Square. I don't know if it still is. I can't imagine to survive the pandemic. Yeah, it was, there was for a moment, a Jekyll and Hyde-themed novelty restaurant in Times Square. Maybe that was the place that, like, Flavortown took over or whatever,

or whatever the hell. Guy Fierre's. Is Guy Fier's restaurant not called Flavertown? Because it really should be. I mean, cast him as Jekyll and Hyde. Let's see what that is. Truly. Is that hair his Jekyll or his Hyde?

So are we going to get a death shift? Or are we going to get even further in... Right. What is the baseline, Guy Fierre personality. Right. Yeah. Minute to win at Guy Fierry. Happy Halloween. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yes, happy Halloween. We have come back with a spooky season movie. Previous spooky season movies on our podcast have included Luca Guadanino's Spiria. And what did we do before that? Us. Well, but not like for our Halloween. Not for Halloween. No, no, no.

Wasn't Hannibal previously like a Halloween? I think that was like our first Halloween. I think that's right. As we were still figuring out what the hell we're doing and we're like, we'll do a Halloween episode. Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean... And today we're kind of like, we'll do a Halloween episode.

We have learned nothing. The challenge is always that, you know, Oscar buzz for scary movies is always, always sort of comes after the fact of people liking something because horror is not a genre that lends itself, naturally to the Oscars.

So finding something that had a lot of pre-release buzz for a horror movie, you have to tend to go for something pedigreed like this, which is, you know, from the director of dangerous liaisons, and it's a great work of literature, and it's these two, you know, very fancy actors in Julia Roberts and John Malcovic will get into the end product. Was this the first, I forgot to, I meant to look this up, and I didn't, was this the first re-teaming of Stephen Frears with Christopher Hampton since Dangerous Liaisons? Had they? I mean, did he, did Christopher Hampton write the grifters? I don't think he did.

He did not, no. And so he wouldn't have written the, not the hero, hero. And then there was that movie, The Van, that, uh, not the van. Um, there's a lot of you look at, we'll get I want to get into the Stephen Freer's filmography because, like, it's really interesting, actually. For somebody who never seems to have a directorial stamp of any kind, the van was not Christopher Hampton. So this was the first re-teaming of Frears and Christopher Hampton since the great success of Dangerous Liaison. We'll also talk about his history with Oscar, too, which I have a feeling. I know what direction you want to talk it into based off of the group thread yesterday, the GC. we also want to talk about this movie because we make fun of it a lot we do we talk about a lot we've got our little Mary Riley whisper drop and whisper drop is

wait can I tell you though I had never seen this movie before I watched it last night this was the first I'd see I'd seen it okay like some type of TBS type of situation but I was seen it, you know. Yeah. I was thoroughly unprepared. I sort of, I knew the plot of it going in. And I knew the vibe from like watching clips and trailers and stuff like that. There were elements of this movie that really took me by surprise. And you mean you didn't expect John Malkovich to transform into Tommy Waiso? the like Fabio open-shirtedness of it all of John Malcovic of John Malcovich not even that it's John Malcovich and like we don't body shame on this podcast

but kind of like a doughy John Malcovich he's not like a he's no gym body like for for better or worse and also on the floor John Malcovich fully going to the Kevin Costner fuck it school of English

accents in period films said in England where he was just like, I'm just not gonna and meanwhile Julia Roberts is like I'm gonna like fucking crazy am I gonna, I'm gonna go for it and we've

said it before, I have at least and I think you would agree with this accent work is not the be all and end all of acting. I think a lot of times it gets outsized attention in that way which makes sense like it makes all the sense

in the world that that would be the graviest thing for attention but it is not the beyond and all of acting that said

when it is when it is particularly enduited ever ever ever ever ever you must have really hated your father I don't know sir

surely he was a monster when I was little and he was in work he wasn't so bad thing. It was the drinking that did it. Julia Roberts, when she, like, gets into her distinct Julia Roberts yell, you know, where she maybe leans into the third or fourth word of a sentence, and that's the big word, and then she has, like, seven other words to say. There was a moment in this that I was like, that's

an Aaron Brockovich line reading. Yeah. And fully... Julia Roberts is a tremendous actress and one of the great movie stars in the history of film, like, one of the absolute best just stars, most, like, quintessential movie stars ever. She is somebody who is originally from Georgia, who cannot credibly do a southern accent. Like, this is just, it's, we all, we have our strengths and our weaknesses, even the best of us. And accent work has never been Julius, and we don't need it to be.

And I listen, the other thing about Mary Riley is I'm fine with this being a bad movie. Mary Riley being one of the worst movies I've seen in a very long time is great for me because I had a time with this movie. I'm going to tell you what. I had a great time watching it too, but I have to argue, I don't think it's that bad. Like, it's maybe really boring. Do you know that this movie got two thumbs up from Siskel and Ebert? Not just one or the other, but both of them. Two thumbs up.

I could not have been more gooped and gagged when I looked up that clip this morning, I will say. That is very funny. I will have to watch that. But once again, there's another viral Roger Ebert, Ebert clip going around and being an utter savage. And it's so good. I haven't seen it yet, but it's him not liking Gladiator, which puts him... Yeah, full respects in our books for Not Liking Gladiator. Okay, not fully surprised.

I mean, I don't think that this movie's... There are several people embarrassing themselves in this movie, but I don't think that the movie is embarrassing. Okay, I will say there are atmospherics and misborses, movie that work. I think the narrative ultimately feels weak and repetitive and doesn't have dramatic or suspenseful beats to it. Like, I feel like the rhythm of the whole thing is off.

I think the acting is poor pretty much throughout, although, as you mentioned in our documents, Sweet Baby Michael Sheen is... Little Macheaded, Tiny Angel. boy, Michael Sheen, is maybe, like, conceivably 19 years old. When we did the Four Feathers, I remember thinking, oh, look at young Michael Sheen, energetic little scamp Michael Sheen, who's like, I was like, oh, it's like, you know, early stages. This is a full four years before that, and he is just a teenager, basically, like he said. Teenty, tiny, Teenageal boy.

And kind of a rascal. and I wish we had seen a little bit more of him. I'd wish we had seen quite a bit less of de-glammed Michael Gambon. And if you think that that feels like a strange thing to say, watch this movie. Because like it is Michael Gambon doing like urchin drag, not even urchin. There's a lot of drag in this movie. Back alley creepo drag for sure. Karen Hines and possibly queer-co-coated.

dandy drag there's a lot Glenn Close with a full Tammy Brown lip going on and a gold tooth Glenn Close as Tammy Brown and when I tell you Tammy Brown's lip outline a picture comes into your head and that just paste it on top of Glenn Close's face as she's giving in this movie to perform the Vanga bus if you think like John Malikovic is on one in this movie, Glenn Close is on four. You ought to look out of this one with a few quaid and a swami letter.

I'll say the same you better read it. Like, she's just like... She knows what movie she's in, though. She knows she's in a piece of, trash, and she's like, let's make this at least be a fun piece of trash. And every single line reading is this sort of sneering, like, he always comes

around here, around 4A, like that kind of a thing. And it's just... One of her incisers is gold. I wrote down the one... I could have written down every line of dialogue that she says. First of all, the Wikipedia page of memorable quotes from this movie concludes not a single quote by Glenn Close's Mrs. Faraday,

which is wrong. She's talking about Dr. Jekyll And she says, you may ask for a few special services, but he doesn't mind paying top whack. Like, what does that mean? But this is also a movie that has all of these people in it, adapted by Christopher Hampton, directed by Stephen Freers. Like, I think, and like a movie that made $5 million,

even by 1996 standards five million dollars like it's so bizarre that they're all there and some of them are so like non-entities there are moments in this movie where it feels like Julia Roberts is literally sucking the light out of the frame she's so like opaque yeah downbeat yeah but it definitely shows like what the the expectations and standards were for this movie, at least in terms of production. I think I kind of

got on this thread, especially because I, you know, started with the Wild Horne musical reference or whatever their names are. They write bad musicals. The, um, that Jekyll and Hyde in terms of horror status

and like in the 90s, you know, we'll talk about it a little bit. It feels like the C-tier traditional, like, often-revisited monster movie, like, character or origin, basically, in that you can make it good or you can make it trash. Yeah. He was the guy you throw into the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen to, like, round out the cast or whatever, right? Where it's like, eh, just throw in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, why not?

And yet, it's a role that's won someone in an Oscar. Frederick March won his Oscar for, or two, one of two Oscars, for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, one of the many early versions of it. That's, I had forgotten about that, but that's, that's what, 1940s? When is that? When is that happening? I do believe. Yeah, yeah.

Maybe it's the 30s. I know that it happened. I just don't remember the year. No, listen, that was, you're better than me for that. It's probably the 30s. But also, this is an era. And of course, Mary Riley maybe ends it and is coming on the tail end of it, where you have these prestige revisitings of the monster movies. Like, listen, give us the dark universe like this again, where it's like the movies are incredibly horny.

They at least garner a Oscar nomination. You're thinking about Mary Shelley's Frankenstein again, aren't you? I'm always thinking about it, but I'm also definitely always thinking of Bram Stoker's Dracula. Bram Stoker's Dracula, which earns, I believe, four Oscars. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein gets an Oscar nomination for the makeup. It's incredibly gross. It's incredibly horny. I don't know what the critical reception of that movie is or the box office of it, but like, you know.

I feel like critical reception was mixed, as I recall, but like, don't quote me on it. That sounds about right. Also, like, fuck you, Kenneth Branagh, we will avenge you, Emma Thompson, even though all All parties involved have moved on. Whatever. I'm just going to say. If listeners aren't familiar. If gay men will do nothing if they will not fight the battles of their faves long after the point that their faves stopped carrying.

Later. That's when he had an affair with Helen and a bottom Carter on the set of the movie. Abandoning Emma Thompson, we don't blame Helen Bottom Carter. Queen. I loved that also last season, there were still people coming out of the woodwork like, fuck Belfast and fuck Kenneth Branagh because he cheated on the top. This is what I'm saying.

Like, there are people still fighting World War II on an island in the Pacific who are less dedicated to a lost cause than gay men who stand wronged women. I don't know. It's very funny. You have those two movies. Very prestigious movies, movies that certainly made some type of money

because Julia Roberts' salary for this movie is twice what the movie made at the box office. And it's also, we'll get into Julia, but it's also at a time where the media is very much turning on her or has turned on her. Yes. Yeah, this is actually towards the tail end of that period. That period that sort of starts with the Lyle-Lovett marriage,

the sort of the Kiefer Sutherland left at the altar, marries Lyle-Lovett, makes a bunch of movies, that people mostly don't like your I love troubles, your prediportes, what not. And then this, Mary Riley, comes in 1996, and by

1997, she's got my best friend's wedding. Also underrated part of that comeback was conspiracy theory, which I'm pretty sure made a pretty decent amount of money. And all of a sudden, it was like, Julia's back, and it had been like three years. So, yeah.

Yeah. Yes. I'm excited. I'm excited to get further into this movie. Yes, very much so. There's just so much, there's so much to dig into. There's so much, I was going to say red meat, but truly it's, there's a lot of squirming eel meat. Yeah, well, that too. The eel scene to kick off this movie really sets it on a tone where it's like, you know how like, when people,

pantomime with a baby and you pantomime like on stage or whatever and you pantomime I have seen American sniper yeah squirming around so you sort of like move your hands to make like the thing that you're holding Julia Roberts holding the squid and then like moving her arms around so it'll like squirm around or whatever is it's very Bella Legosi in Ed Wood movies you know trying to pretend that he's being eaten by an octopus

yeah and then at one point she has a bad dream and the eel sort of like turns to face her. No, one of her bad dreams, the eel sort of turns to face her, and it's like, meep, and it's with like a beaker from the Muppet's mouth, just like, meh, it's something. It's really something this movie. Oh, boy. That was one repetitive thing, though relatable as someone who's going through a lot of personal stress right now and having nightmares on a nightly basis.

I was like, same girl, but first. story, maybe introduce this information in a different way than yet another night. Oh, God. Yeah. All right. Well, should we get into it? Let's get into it. Let's kind of set the stage, and then we're going to have Joe do his 60-second plot description for listeners. We are here today on All Hallows Eve to talk about Mary Riley. when he says it when he says it in the movie i was fully leonardo decaprio image macro or it's just like pointing at the tv i i was full like the people who gives standing ovations to nicole kidman's amc ad i was i was saluting the television yeah uh yeah laura porches says all the hooting and the hollering and the hollering

Mary Riley, directed by Stephen Frears, written by Christopher Hampton, adapted from the novel by Valerie Martin, the novel Mary Riley. Not the original source, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyley. That's Robert Louis Stevenson, right? It's Robert Lewis Stevenson. Yes, it is. So, we're in Gregory Maguire territory. We're at the shiz. Is that what you're saying? Is that what's going on? I love when Julia Roberts gets to go to shiz. That's the Romeo. That's the Romeo. and Michelle sequel. I just love when they let her go to Shiz. Christopher Hampton, we'll get into it. The movie stars, the one and only Julia Roberts, John Malkovich, Gary Cole,

Michael Gambon, Kathy's staff, Kieran Hines, the aforementioned sweet tiny angel baby Michael Sheen, and the one and only Glenn Close. The movie opened wide in February, late February of 1996, I believe after being pushed from the previous season.

Yeah. And it promptly died. Joe, did you happen to look up the box office on this movie besides the fact that it only made $5 million? I didn't. I didn't dig into it. The number one movie, the weekend that Mary Riley opened, was Rumble in the Bronx. You know, I know that because I watched the Siskel and Ebert with Mary Riley.

The Siskel and Ebert with Mary Riley was Rumble in the Bronx before and after, the Streep Liam Neeson movie that also I can't imagine made any money because nobody liked it. Unforgettable, the Ray Leota Linda Fiorentino thriller, that kind of lost genre of like just a thriller with adults, just like, that's all

you need. There were so many of them in the 90s, there are none of them now. And what was the fifth one? Shit, I can't remember now. But it was quite a weekend. Yeah, for sure. Quite a weekend. One, you could sum up in less than 60 seconds.

which Joe will have to do for the motion picture, Mary Riley, if you are ready. Yes, I just want to also add, though, that it's not Gary Cole who's in this movie, but George Cole, Gary Cole of Office Space and Veep is not in this movie, although... Conceivably could be, though. Who would know, honestly? George Cole. My apologies. I was typing too fast.

Sorry to this man. My demonic autocrect that I can't figure out how to turn off. Joseph, if you're ready, you will have 60 seconds for Mary Riley. Are you ready? I am ready. All right, your 60-second plot description for Mary Riley starts now. What if the Dr. Jekyll we've all heard so much about had a maid, and she looked like Julia Roberts, but sounded like one of the cores? Mary Riley is on staff in the employ of Dr. Henry Jekyll, and he tends to spend a little more time than her than necessary, which is when he's played by John Malkovich, means a lot of leering glances and simple in line readings. He's working on some big secret project.

And one day he announces to the staff that he'll be bringing on an assistant, Mr. Edward Hyde. Hyde is long of hair and brutish of demeanor, and he fixes on Mary when he's not taking evening strolls around town, stomping on children and tearing up Glenn Close's whorehouse. Due to the killings happening around London, Jekyll declares that Hyde must disappear, only he doesn't, and he ultimately reveals to a horrified Mary that he and Jekyll are the same man. How it goes is Jekyll injects himself with a serum and becomes Mr. Hyde. Hyde exercises Jekyll's toxic McEll and id, and then Hyde injects antidote to turn. back. Only now Hyde doesn't want to turn back. Only Jekyll forces him too. Only Hyde has mixed poison with the antidote so they both end up dying. And Mary Riley walks into the hilarious London fog and out of Robert Lewis Stevenson's memory forever.

You really kind of forget until the finale of this movie. The worst ASMR, I apologize to anybody whose thing is ASMR because I think I might have ruined it for you forever. We're just going to like tap our nails against the microphone. Right, exactly. I'm going to crunch some tortilla chips while talking about Mary Riley listeners. I hope that

works for people. That was a gambit that I wanted to take. You're not watching this podcast. You're listening to this podcast. I want you all to know

that when Joe leaned in and whispered his 60-second plot description as he was a genius to do, a king of comedy, Joseph,

my visual experience, he was leaning into his microphone in the camera and it was very Blair which, so scared. I want to say sorry to my mom and my dad.

It was Blair Witch. Again, spooky season. Yeah, it's true. Yeah, where can I? Like, yeah. He's sobbing. I can see the snot dripping out of his nose. Can you imagine if IMAX was around the time of Blair Witch and they would have put Blair Witch

and IMAX and we would have seen Heather Donahue's Oh my God. Heather Donahue, who's changed her name and is like a hemp farmer now or something like that I have read which like on the cover of weed magazines blessings just blessings we got to figure out one of these days how to capture video and put that on our

Twitter and because that would have been if we ask Gavin how do you do that and give us technical assistance more technical expertise and we'll be like we're stupid explain it again we're not bitches please

explain yeah Okay, so should we start with Julia, as we often do? We've talked about her quite a bit. This is, all right, we should mention at this point, we forgot to do the six-timers quiz when we did Julia Roberts last time. The last one was Notting Hill, so it was in the middle of our EW series, so there was a lot going on. And forgive us.

The Notting Hill episode, that was almost the Mary Riley episode, because it was a spring movie preview cover. And it was the listener's choice, right? Mary Riley got beat out by Notting Hill. And a lot of listeners were really mad online that it wasn't Mary Riley because they thought that the true Garys were not showing up. And there were two Julia movies in that EW series, sort of by happenstance. And so I think that also was part of it, where all of a sudden she went from four to six

and we just missed it. And we were made aware of this. And so we made sure that by the time we got to her seventh movie, which is this, we have fulfilled the prophecy and Mary Riley is back and... It's almost like we've been doing this so long we forget how many episodes we've done. So let's talk about the Julia of it all

and then we'll do the seven-timers quiz. How about that? How about we do that? I love it. Okay. Like we said, this is Julia Roberts at an ebb of her career and this maybe is like the low point before she rebounds.

And I'm going to bring up the filmography in a second because obviously the Oscar nominations for Steal Magnolia's and Pretty Woman happened in 1989 and 1990. She's making money with sleeping with the enemy. And then she leaves Kiefer Sutherland at the altar, reportedly because she had a fling with Jason Patrick, who was Kiefer's friend, and her friend.

They were all sort of part of that sort of like flatliners the tendril universe or whatever. Jason Patrick, who I don't believe is in flatliners, but conceivably is in flatliners? But that's the thing is like they were all sort of like, uh, sort of connected to each other. And I think when, so she's subjected to a wave of bad publicity there. And I think as a result, certain movies that are good movies, uh, quote, to quote, Mules Foreman, um, don't get, like, I think the Pelican brief is not appreciated as much as it could be. could have been because we were in the midst of this kind of Julia Roberts bad press cycle.

But then there were legitimately bad movies. I Love Trouble was sort of notorious for her and Nick Nolte not getting along on the set of that film. And then it comes out and nobody likes it. Mary Riley comes out and Siskeleney liked it, but mostly nobody liked it. Michael Collins comes right after Mary Riley. And it's like two Irish accents in a row. public really rejected that. Michael Collins...

I think she's just the and in that movie, right? It's not a big role. It's not a big role. Michael Collins got one Oscar nomination, so we can't do it for this podcast, but that was a big... I believe cinematography. Michael Collins was from what... That was a Warner Brothers movie.

So, like, that was part of the big 96 wave of big studio Oscar fair that didn't happen. Michael Collins and the Crucible and some other big ones and that sort of paved the way for the big indie Miramax revolution of that year. She's also that same year in Everyone Says I Love You, which is a musical, which I still think we should do for this podcast at some point. I know nobody likes Woody Allen, but like... There's a billion people in it, a billion people who have no business being in a musical.

So like... But that's like the point of that movie. Three movies in 1996 where she's like, accent, accent, singing. And it's like, chance, chance, chance. And the public kind of rejects all of them. Everyone says, I Love You was decently reviewed, but, like, it doesn't really do anything. And so 96, she's sort of at the bottom. And then, as I said, 97, with my best friend's wedding and conspiracy theory, that's the bounceback.

And stepmom and nodding hill and runaway bride, it keeps going up. And then Aaron Brockovich, it's just like, bam, right at the top. And at that point, the career still has its, you know, sort of like, it's still sort of like moving all over the map. But I think once she wins the Oscar for Aaron Brockovich, she's like, fuck with me. Like, what are you going to do? You know what I mean? Like, I'm getting married. I got kids.

I'm on Oprah every other day. And, like, I'm going to make full frontal. You know what I mean? I'm going to make closer. Closer is the kind of movie that I feel like would have been toxic for her if it is. come during her like 90s slump or whatever but like at that point people would have been unfair to that movie people still were unfair to that movie but like yeah yeah well even like she has like flops like duplicity flops it shouldn't have but it did but like it's not like it did

anything to her career at that point you know what i mean like she just sort of like keeps on trucking along larry crown kind of the same way um mirror mirror money monster like she's allowed to be in movies at this point that don't do well and the press still feels like it still does feel like there's a degree of the press trying to be like Julia Roberts come back with like every third

movie and like it just it feels less convincing every time to the point where like Ticket to Paradise is sort of being sold as like Julia Roberts rom-com again and it's like we're recording this the weekend it opens

and it's not doing well so it's not but I still want to see it and I listen old Parker I don't really like it people I've seen some people I've seen some people who like it I've seen some people who like it I have I've I've seen a range of responses to it so um but yeah so by and large people didn't love Mary Riley as a Julia Roberts movie Cisco Leibert accepted and to the degree to which people thought this movie. And again, it opened in February. It's not like it was like a huge investment on Columbia Pictures as part to like... Well, it probably would have been a Christmas release if the studio took a look at the movie and was like, this is good, we're going to push this. This is what I mean, yeah.

Because I couldn't find it, but I thought I had read for some of our other, and maybe it was with the EW thing, that the movie was originally envisioned as like a fall Christmas movie. That makes sense. Right, because it would have been in what it was in the holiday preview. Is that what the deal was? No, it was in a spring preview. Okay, that's what. Okay.

Okay. We'll talk about the frears of it all because I really think that's where the Oscar buzz happened. But before we do, we should do the Julia Roberts' seven-timers quiz. Super-sized. It's going to be harder. You have seven movies to choose from. So just to remind our listeners, Gary's old and new, whenever we reach the usually sixth movie for a specific performer on this podcast, we, I devise a quiz to give to Chris about the six movies that we have covered from that performer on this podcast.

In this case, it is seven. For Julia Roberts, it is Mona Lisa Smile, which was our very, very first episode, way, way back in the Paleolithic era, followed by Robert Altman's Predaporte, stepmom. There was a big gap. Prediporte was our 70th episode. We didn't do another Julia until stepmom at 158. And then, like, the floodgates kind of opened. Money Monster was after that.

Then the Pelican Brief, Notting Hill, and now Mary Riley. And that's seven. So, Chris, are you ready? Do you have your answer bank in front of you? I do. You're good to go. Okay. So, of those seven movies, which one do you think was the longest?

Pelican Brief. The Pelican Brief at 144 minutes. Yes, very good. Which one was the shortest? Mary Riley? Not Mary Riley. Oh, Money Monster, because Money Monster's like 90 minutes. Money Monster is a slick 98 minutes.

Yes, absolutely. All right, which had the highest domestic box office total? stepmom No but that was very good Notting Hill Notting Hill was 116 million I believe stepmom was 98 domestic Both of them quite good

Which was the lowest domestic box office Mary Riley Mary Riley yes Prediporte Wow even lower than Prediporte Pertaire made like twice what Mary Riley made So yeah Yeah

Different You can't even say different time They were only a couple years apart So anyway which one had the highest Rotten Tomato score? Notting Hill. Notting Hill at 83%. Do you want to take a guess as to what was the second highest of this group?

Pelican Brief. No, Pelican Brief is rotten, right? Uh-huh. That's wild. Stepmom. No. Is it Prediporte? It's not Prediporte.

Is it Money Monster? Money Monster at 59% is better reviewed as per sepore. rotten tomatoes asterisk asterisk then the pelican brief what what the fuck what are we talking about what are we doing here what are we doing here okay uh which was the lowest rotten tomato score mary riley no oh is it mona lisa smile it is not I guess then it's Prediporte? Predaporte was not well, like, 24% on Rotten Tomatoes. Okay, but that's close to Mary Riley.

It is. Mary Riley was 26%. Yes, yes, yes, yes. So, yes. All right, which three of these movies were distributed by studios outside the Sony umbrella? Okay, so not Mona Lisa Smile, not stepmom, not. Notting Hill is universal. Pelican Brief is Warner Brothers.

Money Monster is universal. Money Monster is universal. Money Monster is Sony. Oh, it is Sunny. Okay. I guess it's Prediporte then, but that's... Predoporte is Miramax. Yes.

But yes, you got it right with Pelican Brief was Warner. Notting Hill's Universal. You are way better at that stuff than I am. I am very good with years. You are very good with studios, I will say. Which movie had a score by John Williams? That is Stepmom?

Stepmom. Yes, very good. Which one was nominated for the MTV Movie Award for Most Desirable Mail? Pelican Brief. Pelican Brief, Denzel Washington. Correct. Yes. Which was the only one to not have been released in either May or December?

Mary Riley. Mary Riley. Which were the two in May? The two in May are Money Monster and Notting Hill. Yes, correct. And then which two were released exactly on Christmas Day? Stepmom.

Yes. And not Mona Lisa Smile, because that opened opposite Lord of the Rings' Pelican Brief. Not Pelican Brief. Okay. Prediporte. Predre Porte, Christmas Day.

Let's go and I'll watch Pretta Porte with the family on Christmas. You take your grandma, your aunts, your weird uncle. Exactly. All right. Which two were directed by directors of Harry Potter movies? Mona Lisa Smile. That's Mike Newell. Yep.

And Chris Columbus did stepmom. Very good. Yes. Which of these films features Tori Amos on the soundtrack? Yeah, you were going to ask that fucking question. Conceivably any of them, but I think it's Mona Lisa Smile. It is Mona Lisa Smile. She's in it. She shows up on screen in that movie. Of course.

Which of these movies features 98 degrees on the soundtrack? Stepmom. No. Notting Hill. Notting Hill. Actually, let me double check that and make sure. I meant to write that down. And then I didn't. But I'm pretty sure that I am right. Yep, I am right. Okay.

Um, uh, which of these films features Salt and Peppa on the soundtrack? Prediporté. Prediporté, yes. Which three of these movies feature stars of the movie Elizabeth Town? Oh, okay. Um, Mona Lisa Smile has Kristen Dunst. Yep. Um, um,

um, um, um, um, one of them has to have Alex Baldwin. Um, okay, Alec Baldwin, Susan, Susan's in stepmom. Yep. Judy Greer, hmm, Judy Greer is not in any of these.

Orlando Bloom, I don't think, is in any of these. Who else is in Elizabethtown? Schneider. And, uh, I must be forgetting someone. I'm just going to say prediporté because there's a million people. It's not. You're on the right track at the beginning.

Alec Baldwin. Yeah. Is Alec Baldwin in Money Monster? No, he's in Notting Hill, if you recall. That's right. He's her asshole... Boyfriend. Famo boyfriend.

Yes, yes, yes, yes. Which two movies feature stars of the world according to Garp? So that's Glenn Close, Mary Riley. yes um is robin williams in prediporte he's not i will just tell you he's not uh and um lithgow it's got to be lithgow in one of these lithgow's in pelican brief lithgow's uh denzil's boss denzil's editor in the pelican brief yes which two movies feature stars of the hours that's a lot of people um there's merrill there's tony colette there's julian there's

Nicole none of these people are in those though um Michael Gambin is it no um Ed Harris Stephen Delane The child. Claire Dane's. Back up. Back up. Back up. Back up. Back up. The child?

Nope. Back up. Stephen Delane. Nope. Back up. Oscar nominee for the hours. Ed Harris. Ed Harris is in stepmom. Yes. All right. That's one. And then the rest of these million people.

Jeff Daniel, maybe Jeff Daniels? No. You may not have caught this person. In The Hours or in the movie? In the movie, in the other movie that she's in. Oh, so it is an actress. She's a fave of ours in the hours, even though she has a very small role. Oh, Eileen Atkins.

Eileen Atkins is in, no? No, no, not Eileen Atkins. Smaller than Eileen Atkins. Less famous for. sure. Is it, um, uh, uh, it's the maid. The cook. Yes.

Yes. God, what's her, it escapes me right now. What's her name? You didn't catch her. Okay. Linda Bassett, who plays Nellie, the cook, is Mary Riley's mother in Mary Riley. I didn't catch her in this. Yeah. All right. Besides Mary Riley, which is the only one of these films wherein Julia Roberts does not co-star with an Oscar winner. Mary Riley is one of... You said there's only one. One besides Mary Riley.

It's not Mona Lisa's smile because Marcia's there. Prediporté has Tim Robbins. Like, she has to share the screen with this person. Yes. It's got to be Notting Hill. It is Notting Hill. Yes. No Oscar winners in Notting Hill.

All right. Only counting acting winners and excluding Julia Roberts herself, how many many Oscar winners are in these seven movies? Oh my God. Burn in hell, sir. All right. We said Marcia Gay. Susan.

Yes. Not at Harris. I'm going to skip Prata Porte for a minute. George Clooney in Money Monster. Denzel in Pelican Brief. Do I count him twice? No. It's distinct actors.

Wait, why would you count him twice? Because he has two Oscars. Oh, no, no, no, no. It's just distinct performers. None for Notting Hill. None for Mary Riley. That's four without getting to Prediporte. Right.

Prediporte has, um, it has, well, okay, it has Tim Robbins. We mentioned Tim Robbins. Forrest Whitaker Um Sophia That's three

There's got to be more than three in that movie It's about remembering how many people are in there There are three more You are missing three more in Prediportez Okay You got what Loren, Robbins And Forst Whitaker Yes

Kim Be Singer, who's great in Prediporte. Yes. Hell of a lot better than the movie she won for. Yes. So there's two more. Is there a musician who won a song Oscar? No, it's just acting. It's just acting.

Okay. One is a cameo in Prediportez. Share. Yes. One is not a cameo, but it's a supporting actress winner. Um... Kind of an interesting supporting actress winner. Okay, it's a supporting actress winner before or after Predaporte?

Before. In the 80s? Yes. Okay. Trying to think of who this could. Linda Hunt. Linda Hunt. Very good.

Well done, Chris. All right. Which of these films did Entertainment Weekly's Leasing Schwarzbaum say was, quote, a reduction of big vital 50s issues into a no-carb pudding of ideas by writers redacted, directed as if by a Martian landed at a Seven Sisters College by redacted. We fucking love Lisa. It is Mona Lisa Smile. Mona Lisa Smile.

Like, what a piece of... Oh, God, I love a Lisa Schwartzbaum pan. Which film did Andrew O'Hie? at Salon, say, was, quote, a stagy moribund plotter loaded with stock characters that wouldn't have felt edgy in 1983 and has about the same contemporary urgency as your average late-night rerun of CSI, New York. Money Monster.

That, yes. Of which film did Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times say, sluggish and interminable, redacted makes good on little of its potential to be disturbing and none of its chance to be emotionally involving. Mary Riley. Mary Riley. Very good, Chris, very good. Good job on the Julia Roberts' seven-timers quiz.

We did it finally. That was maybe the most difficult one that we've had in a minute. Yeah, yeah. I had fun with it, though. All right. I think the Stephen Frears, and dare I say even, the Stephen Freer's Christopher Hampton of it all, is probably 90% of the reason why this movie would have had any kind

of Oscar buzz because Dangerous Liaisons in 1988 was a I wrote this down how many total Oscar nominations did it get seven time Oscar nominee wins the screenplay award in addition to I want to save costumes and

one other one but wins Christopher Hampton the Oscar for adapted screenplay. Adapting his own play right? I believe yes which was then the play isn't it also based on a novel? The play is based

on a novel, the French pronunciation of which I am not going to attempt. Stephen Frears, though, throughout his career, and I sort of jotted all of this down because it's really interesting, like a more robust Oscar player than I think people realize, because people tend to think of Stephen Frears, he's not really anuteur, he doesn't have this great visual stamp, this great visual flare. You don't go to a movie being like I'm going to the freers. It's going to like knock me on my ass, right? But we both skipped the freers at Tiff, too.

We did. Over the years, though, 1971, his first film, it's called Gumshoe. It gets a Baftanom for Albert Finney. I've never seen it. It sounds interesting. He doesn't make another feature. He does a lot of television after that.

It doesn't make another feature until 1984 with a movie called The Hit, which gets a Baftanom for like best newcomer for Tim Roth. My Beautiful Andrette in 1985, which is a tremendous movie, a big launching pad for Daniel DeLewis. Daniel DeLewis gets New York Film Critics Circle and National Border Review for Best Supporting Actor for that and a Room of the View sort of looped in together.

That also gets an Oscar nomination for screenplay. 1987 is a movie that I have not seen that I really want to prick up your ears, which is a 80s queer film, gets BAFTA nominations for Gary Oldman. It's Gary Oldman and Alfred Molina play lovers in that film. BAFTA nominations for Oldman and Vanessa Redgrave. And then 1988 is Dangerous Liaisons.

Like I said, seven Oscar nominations. It's his first acting nominations. The first of he's directed eight separate acting nominations across only one actress repeats. So seven women, eight performances, have gotten

Oscar nominations for performance for a Stephen Frears movie, which I would say is pretty good. That's like, kind of like Mike Nichols level of like good for actresses, right? Where it's close and Pfeiffer

in Dangerous Liaisons, then his next movie, The Grifters, gets four Oscar nominations. He's snubbed from a best director nomination for dangerous liaisons, even though that gets a best picture nomination. Then for the Gryfters, he gets the lone director nomination there. Grifters is not a best picture nominee, but he's nominated for best director, which, like, make-up nomination, perhaps. The same thing that happened to Spielberg.

Yeah. It happened to Spielberg a couple of times, actually. No, but the first nomination is for picture, but no director, and then flip-plus the next one. Raiders of the Lost Ark, right? Or no, close encounters. No, that's close encounters. Yes, yes, you're right. Raiders, he's,

Raiders is both picture and director. Then color purple is picture no director. And then he's not nominated again until Schindler's list, I'm pretty sure. I think. Yeah. No, E.T. We're missing E.T. Well, yes, E.T was between. Both.

Yes. E.T. was also both. Yes. Anyway, Angelica Houston and Annette Benning, both nominated for the Grifters. 1992 is Hero, a movie that we should do at some point, because I think that's an interesting movie that had more Oscar attention than I think we remember. 96 is Mary Riley. 98 is a movie called the High-Low country

that I've heard of, but I've never seen. But that gets a National Border Review Breakthrough Award for Billy Crudeup, and you know how I love Billy Crudeup, so I really should see that movie. You know how we love Billy Crudeup. 2,000 High Fidelity, which gets some Golden Globe nominations

and an interesting amount of attention for Jack Black in the supporting actor conversation. Like, probably doesn't come particularly close to a nomination, but, like, is in the conversation. That's also a screenplay nominee at the Oscars, if I'm not mistaken, right? I don't think High Fidelity is a nominee. Okay, then we should do that. Because I think it's been on our list before.

Okay. 2003, screenplay nomination for Dirty Pretty Things. for Stephen Knight writing that screenplay. 2005, Mrs. Henderson presents Oscar nomination for Judy Dench. 2006, The Queen, which is another Best Picture nomination, another best director. So his second picture, his second director nomination,

Helen Mirren wins the Oscar for Best Actress. It's his first, it's only time he's directed anybody to an Oscar win. Six nominations in total for the Queen. Then sort of a dip with 2009, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Cherie. Doesn't really go anywhere. 2010, it's the Gemma Arderton movie Tamara Drew, which I've never seen.

I've never seen, 2012 Lay the Favorite, which I've also never seen, the Rebecca Hall card, like a gambling movie. But then 2013 is Philomena. Back in the Best Picture Race, like his third Best Picture nominee, Judy Dench gets nominated for Best Actress. Four Oscar nominations in total, and I feel like it was on the cusp of maybe getting even more than that. Like, it was a really big late-game push for Philomena, Philomania. 2015

was the Lance Armstrong movie, The Program with Ben Foster, that Katie Rich and I saw together at Tiff, and I think nobody else ever saw that movie. Well, because, like, that movie had big expectations on it, but that is a big festival bomb. Big festival bomb. It didn't come out until the next year.

But that next year, Florence Foster Jenkins, which is a surprisingly robust award season player. Merrill gets a nomination dubiously, but also like came very close to a nomination for Hugh Grant. Simon Helberg got a Golden Globe nomination for it, and also coming close in 2017, Victoria and Abdul, which Judy Dench comes very, very close to getting another nomination for playing Queen Victoria. And then this year, you mentioned earlier, he had a movie at Tiff called The Lost King that I didn't see and you didn't see, but like I saw a couple of people

saw it and seemed to think it was pretty cute. I've seen it since. How is it? It's, I, I, well, I don't know if I'm allowed to talk about it because of, oh, it hasn't opened. Gotcha. It hasn't opened. It's, it's definitely a movie that's going to open in the early spring. But we like movies that, listen, we need movies to open in the early spring.

Like, we need those. I thought there was a vague Q-Anon vibe about this movie. I won't lie. And I won't say anymore. I won't say anymore. Oh, is this one of those things where I have to care about whether people are royalists or not? Because here's what I'm going to tell you. No.

I could give a shit whether somebody's a royalist or not. No. That is outside of my sphere. It's the story of this woman is trying to find the grave of Richard III and reconstitute his reputation. And it's like, it's like, really he wasn't that evil. It was a whole story manipulated by the family. And like Shakespeare has had. so much to do with the reputation of Richard the 3rd, but none of it's true. And I was like,

this isn't the intention, but this feels a little QAnon to me. In a way that, like, Anonymous, the Roland Emmerich Anonymous also feels maybe like, why are we doing a conspiracy about Shakespeare? Like, what's going on? What's happening here? Um, so how do we feel about Stephen Freer's in general? Like I've seen some people who sort of like dismiss him as a hack, and I don't think that's entirely fair. I think he is part of a strata of directors that I like that we have, which is sort of adaptable to, we talked about Roger Michel when we did the Notting Hill episode, sort of like adaptable to the project doesn't really have a ton of auteur stamp, but does enough good work and good movies that I really appreciate. him being there. Well, there's kind of a shagginess, like, punk-ish, not, like, quite punk, but, like, adjacent to, like, early stuff like, my beautiful laundrette, and you see it in something

like dangerous liaisons, which is, like, kind of a straightforward bodice-ripper costume drama, but it has way more edge to it than that, that clearly, I think, as a director, he brought something to that material in the way that, you know, he positions these performances, et cetera um and i think dangerous liaisons because it's probably the most widely beloved of his whole filmography has like positioned him for some of these you know more crummy in my opinion uh like costume dramas sure like victoria and abdul um but i don't know i think he makes really watchable movies i mean like i've i've defended mrs anderson presents before not only because because my darling Bob Hoskins is in it.

But it's like an entertaining movie. I don't like The Queen. I think that that is wallpaper. But I think, like, Philemon is a better movie than I think it got credit for in terms of, like, it was kind of positioned. It was like, it was the Weinstein movie favorite. It was the Judy Dunch is going to get another Oscar nomination favorite.

As much as people I rolled their eyes about it, like, I was charmed by that movie. I think that's a good movie. movie. I think Sheree is mostly boring, but pretty sexy at times. I haven't seen that. Dirty Pretty Things is grimy and interesting

and I remember liking that movie. High Fidelity is a good adaptation of that book, I thought. What else? I think my beautiful Landrette, as you said, is great. I'm excited to see I want to, maybe I'm going to do a little mini Frears thing once we're done doing these screen drafts movies, but

like I would do prick up your ears and high-low country in the same day. Like, that would be an interesting double feature. You say this as if we don't have a whole stack of movies to watch. Well, that's what I said. I said after the screen drafts thing, after that major project is done. No, maybe it'll be like my, like, Christmas vacation, though.

I'll watch some frears. Who knows? I like my beautiful laundrette. I had some, like, kind of reservation. I do think it's semi-dated, but then there's also stuff that's super interesting at the same time. So you've seen it, right? Yes, I saw it a few years ago.

I was going to say, I'll be interested to see what you think of that, but yeah. No, and that's another movie that's like kind of really sexy. You wouldn't think of Stephen Frears as a guy who's like, that's a filmmaker who can churn out some real sexy material. And like, the vibe in my beautiful Andrette is like very, can be like very intensely alluring, I think. I don't know. I mean, I do think Mary Riley could have had an. element of that if it wasn't Tommy Wiseau as

Dr. Checkler and Mr. Hyde. When he transforms between the two of them, like one of them has a full mustache that goes away. And then the other one is like Fabio Harlequin Romance novel cover. The actual, the whole movie is leading

up to this transformation scene. And you know, like, we all know the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. So we all have an expectation in our head of we're going to see a transformation scene because the movie is very sort of ostentatiously keeping it from us, right? We're like, there's behind closed doors, and you see them behind the shadow and a window, and you hear screaming, and it's all very like, so you know, just from the language of the film

that, like, we're leading up to seeing it. And I, at least, was like, this is 1996. This is a costume drama. This is a Stephen Freer's movie. none of this really screams great special effects to come, you know what I mean, to me? And it happens, and I literally wrote down, and I know you're not a Harry Potter person, but I literally wrote down. No, it's entirely that. I said, Professor Quirrell looking ass.

I mean, I'm sure that the, like, PS1 version of Professor Quirrell was better looking than this. It was so, it was so fine. It's like John Malkovich writhing on the floor, and then they want, it's like tiny baby getting thrown into a cauldron, Baltimore coming up out of his shoulder.

Pushing out of his shoulder, yeah. Like twice and that's it. But like you do for a second see what very much looks like a baby wrapped in flesh-colored cellophane like pushing out of his chest in like a way that like

when people saw malignant and like the twist in that movie and people sort of like hooted and hollered at the sort of cheesiness of it and that movie like invests in the cheesiness of that moment whereas like Mary Riley is playing it like a genuine shock and like it it looks deeply silly it's it not only looks silly and I think looks silly and it's on a CGI level that would have probably looked silly at 96 but it's also wildly underwhelming it's like 30 seconds of of him squirming around, and then that's it. And it's like, oh, I guess he poisoned me. I want to look up the visual effects nominees in 1996. What you look it up, I will also mention there's other issues with this ending because they shot multiple endings, they scripted even more.

They clearly didn't know how to resolve this would-be romance. romance, horror, you know, Mike Lee, Kitchen Sink drama. Okay, so three best visual effects nominees that year. The winner was Independence Day, which, like, I mean. I think people now watch that movie and are like, oh, the visual effects are so bad. But, like, at the time... No, that was a huge leap forward. I thought they were really good.

And it was a huge, and it was a huge hit. And, like, at, like, the site of those... And I know for as much as... It's the reason why I will probably defend Roland Emmerich for, through all of the nonsense that he'll do for the rest of his career. Because, like, the sight of those ships hovering in over the major cities in the United States in that movie is legitimately awe-inspiring. Like, you just, like, you look at it, and it's just like you're sold, right? Like, it looks very cool. I would argue that when we envision the apocalypse, which is something we unfortunately do quite a bit,

these days. Yes. Those images are so indelible that, like, it has shadowed our ideas of what the apocalypse will look like, you know? Yeah, yes. Our own imagination is now derivative of ID4. Do you watch the new Unsolved Mysteries on Netflix? I know that you were tweeting about some type of water column thing, and I was like, I can't,

I can't do this. There's a tremendous UFO episode in the new batch of Unsolved Mysteries on Netflix. Flakes is all I will say. It's the second episode of the new season. I was so scared of Unolved with Mysteries as a kid. Like, it just feels like a basement door that I can't open. I get it. It feels like Barbarian, you know, the point where I'm like, no, I'm out of this house and

I'm never returning. That's what new, new Unolved Mysteries is to me. Well, most of the new Unolved Mysteries is like Unolved True Crime, which has its own appeal. And I think Unsolved Mysteries does, like, it is a show that, Every single time I see it, I'll text with my friend who watches it with me and will, like, just sort of, you know, go on for a while about what we think was really going on. This episode, the UFO episode in the new season, was one of the few ones where I watch it and I'm like, oh, I'm creeped out and scared watching this. Like, it is. But it also addresses this idea of, like, how recently, you know, some of this stuff is being declassified and now they're finally admitting that there are UFOs and whatever.

And so, yeah, like, but it, like you said, like my vision of the aliens coming to find us is still very much in my head in Pendance Day. So the other two nominees were Dragon Heart, which was the Dragon with the voice of Sean Connery movie with that piece of Randy Edelman's score, I think it's Randy Edelman, that you hear in all of those like inspirational, like, movie montages or whatever, let go, I'll probably drop it in here. Because, like, it's so recognizing. It's like, that's so recognizing. It's like that is the Shawshank. Michigan. Yes. The third nominee was Twister that year, which has been in the news. They're bringing it back. I am not all about reboots. I think we need to like let old IP die, but I will be very happy for a Twister sequel. Well, here's the thing about Twister is if you remember the movie, the original Twister was

about Helen Hunt grows up to be a tornado chaser because in her childhood, A tornado killed her parents, and now she's hunting down that tornado and will, like, kill it if it's the last thing she does, basically. Like, that's the plot. It's like Helen Hunt will extract her revenge on tornadoes for killing her parents. It's like a death wish revenge movie. And so if the new rebooted twister, then, is like Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton's kid who, like, the tornado killed her dad because we can't have Bill Paxton because Bill Paxton sadly has passed away. And, like, maybe, like, Helen Hunt is the Lois Smith, and, you know, you cast somebody new as the young, new generation tornado chaser. First of all, how fucking dare you. You do not cast, you do not recast Lois Smith. The new Lois Smith will be Lois Smith.

Lois Smith can still be there. I will fight you on this. Lois Smith has to return. We can have a Georgia rule situation where it's three generations of tornado chasing women. That is fine. Three generations of Lois Smith. Yes. Well, can I also say?

Who is our 20-something lowest smith? myth right now. Oh, that's a question. Caitlin Deaver? I was going to say regardless, they're going to cast Caitlin Deaver in what they are going to cast cats. Which is great. She's great. I hope that it is not just in the vein

of Twister because there is an element of like, Campy, this is so stupid that this is so stupid and silly that we're watching it. Twister has jokes about the cows flying by. If there are not cows flying through the sky in this movie, why will you be making a sequel to it? It's not

Just the Twister has jokes about the cows flying by. Twister has the best joke about the cows flying by, which is Jamie Gertz on her little cell phone because she's a big city high maintenance lady. And she's just going, we got cows. It's one of the best, like, it's so good. We got cows. But I also hope that Twister, like, goes full, crazy, what the hell are we watching? I want the Ma version of Twister. I want, I want, I want Twister. I want Twister. I want Twister. Twister to, how are we saying Twister two, Tooster, Twister. Yeah, that's what it is, like, TWO, Twist, Twister. I want it to be about how you should believe women. I want it to be about the girl bossification of the storm chaser. So like, in the future, there are no tornadoes. And Helen Hunt is like, there were tornadoes and they were bad.

don't understand and they're coming back and everybody is like crazy old helen hunt you don't know what you're talking about we don't believe you at all and her daughter's the only one she's like mom i believe you i believe the tornadoes are coming back and then they come back and nobody knows how to deal with them because we are in a society that has evolved past tornado preparedness and and and there's helen hunt as the linda hamilton in terminator in terminator too of like she was telling us all along and they locked her up in an asylum because nobody believed her that tornadoes existed. That's what I want.

Much as happened to leather face at the beginning of this year, I want to see the Twisters get canceled. I want to see the cancellation of a Twister. I want to see... I just want this movie to be so stupid. So I love that we, in this episode about Mary Riley, have a solid 10 on Twister. This is very good.

Twister. Toaster. Toaster. Coming to probably a streaming platform near you, whatever. Although, if Magic Mike 3 succeeds, perhaps legacy sequels can go to theaters, and maybe gay men will support that in a theater, Magic Mike 3, because they don't support their own. All right, John Malcolmich, he was a two-time nominee by this point. Yes.

He was not a third-time nominee. Has he been nominated since in the line of fire? talked about this in our C-Biscuit episode where he wears like a bunch of hats and things. He does. Weird bright colors and like that was the whole campaign for Malcovich. It's like he wears yellow

pants. He's kind of, I mean, this is the other thing too, because not only did Stephen Freer's not get nominated for dangerous liaisons, Malcovich doesn't get nominated for dangerous liaisons too. Right, right. Malcovich doesn't get shit for that movie.

and he's also great in that movie. Places in the heart, he was playing a blind man in the line of fire. He's playing a villain. A really good villain. He's still kind of a villain in this movie. He's kind of chewing the scenery, but it's a really good chewing the scenery performance and in the line of fire. Like, that's a really good nomination. I really like that.

And this movie, I think, is bad chewing the scenery. Shadow of the Vampire, he's overshadowed by Willem. Defoe who gets the nomination in that I'm trying to think of like what other things like obviously the not Oscar nomination that didn't happen for being John Malcovich is infuriating and

puzzling in that like why would you not want to nominate why would you not want to have a cool nomination like nominating John Malcovich for playing himself in a Spike Jones movie in a movie that you liked enough to give Catherine Keener and Spike Jones

nominations for so like Yeah, but he never really got, I don't think he got nominations elsewhere, right? Like, I don't think he was nominated at SAG. I don't think he was nominated by the Globes or... Hold, please. It was just a weird holdout. What I would have loved if he had been nominated, as you would have added him to the stack of people who are nominated for playing Oscar nominees.

But is himself playing, you know, there's a lot of Kaufman-esque... Okay, so let's see. for being John Malkovich, he was a runner-up for Los Angeles Film Critics Association. He won the New York Film Critics Association for Best Supporting Actor. Those are the big ones. Runner-up for Chicago. So, yeah, it was mostly the Critics Awards. You're right that he didn't show up at, like, the Globes or SAG.

it still feels like if awards if Oscar voters liked being John Malikovic enough to give it the nominations that it got it feels silly like 99 especially it's not like I don't understand why they went for the nominees that they went for

right? We're like Michael Kane, the kindly old man in Cider House Rules which they clearly liked and no matter what people say about Cider House Rules Oscar voters liked it and what are you going to do? Michael Clark Duncan in the Green Mile

sort of the same thing. If you like that movie, of course you're going to love Michael Clark Duncan in that movie. I think the other nominees are more defensible, especially by like people in our demographic, right?

Like, everybody loves Tom Cruise and Magnolia. Jude Law and Talton, Mr. Ripley, is incredible. And Haley Joel Osmond, though he is the lead of the Sixth Sense, or a co-lead of the Sixth Sense, obviously with Bruce Willis.

I think it's great in The Sixth Sense. It's his second best performance, and he's really tremendous. So, like, it's a tough year to crack that lineup if you sort of posit that, like, Oscar voter's going to Oscar voter about stuff like Cider House Rules and Green Mile. There's other, like, supporting actors that could have been in play for movies that they liked, like The Insiders of Best Picture Nominee, Why? Christopher Plummer. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Which is even more infuriating than the Malcolm. bitch thing to me.

Like, he, to me, is my winner that year. Yeah. What? I just remember the only for me joke of, Girl, Mike Wallace is here. You idiot. You fucking dummy. No, yeah.

Like, 99 bounty of riches. The 99 Oscars are sort of often talked about as being like a little bit of a booby prize at the end of the great year of 1999 because the Oscar nominees are not as spectacular as the movie year itself. but those acting categories are pretty uniformly great, I think, more or less. I think you could probably quibble with a few things here, but they're tough to crack. So, like, I get it. So what else has Malkovich done since then that might have even, like, burn after reading,

I could see a world in which, like, the Cohen brothers weren't just coming off of no country for old men, and thus burn after reading would have seen. seemed less like a weird downshift into, you know, take the year off, Oscar voters. You don't have to worry about this. Because he's very funny in that movie. Changelangling, I don't think,

is a very good movie, but obviously that got a nomination for Angelina Jolie. Secretariat, we've talked about on this podcast before. He definitely got some buzz for that. And then since then, like... He does a lot of, like, bad action.

movies now. Yes, he does. And then, like, shows up in something like Velvet Buzzsaw, which is, like, a weird movie and, like, cool and I'm glad he did it. But, like, that movie disappeared into the Netflix ether faster than almost any sort of, like, that movie, I don't know, I don't even know. It's weird to even talk about. One of those movies, nobody talks about starting the Monday after it has premiered on Netflix. what does he have coming up he's definitely in like a De Niro or Morgan Freeman old guys being dudes movie yeah that feels like it would be a good fit oh he's in bird box speaking of Netflix movies although that was not that did not disappear that one uh entered in the pop culture lexicon surprisingly so um yeah malcovitch feels like that moment's kind of past.

I could see a world in which he gets an interesting late career performance and knocks it out and I don't know. I don't know. He's an interesting case. He's a peculiar goddamn actor to watch him work, though. He's so odd in this movie.

Do you think he's good in this movie? No. I do want to understand the logic of someone assuming that he and Julie Roberts would have good romantic chemistry because that to me like regardless of if he was good that is very strange to me yeah especially because it's like it's julia doing a voice and it's malcovich doing a bit and yeah and it's and and they're sort of at cross purposes like they're not both doing the same weird thing they're doing different weird things and glen close is

doing her own weird thing and i think of the three of them glen close is probably the right the doing the right thing she's doing the right thing she said I will get those puppies she's out of control in this movie she's really really I loved her at this movie I don't care any movie that ends with Glenn Close's severed head like that's the end of

her character's arc is like tremendous so good let's get into the Christopher Hampton of it all before we get too much into the wrap up I mean a man who has given us incredible adaptation, such as Atonement and Dangerous Liaisons, and has also given us less than incredible ones. What was the thing recently that you hated Christopher Hampton for?

Was that the son? The son, which obviously he did the adaptation of the father. Both of these are based on Florian Zeller's plays in, you know, conversation sort of with each other. Right. It's like, it truly, I made the joke of it, but like I do feel like it's Christopher Hampson, through the French text into some type of AI. Sure. And then the English text is like this.

Everybody is talking like they're a textbook and not a person. Right. And it's real embarrassing. In theaters this fall. I will say the Oscar nomination for Atonement, I really do. like, of course. I love that movie, and I think he does a good job, although I never read that novel, but, like, I think that movie is well scripted and structured. I think a lot of people sort of make fun of it a little bit for an over-reliance on that structure, but, like, I'm

fine with that. He also did the adaptation of previous episode A Dangerous Method, which feels very much because it's, like, medicine, doctors, uh, lady who, who is maybe in love with The Doctor feels like the good version of this movie. However, he also did another one of our recurring bits. He did the adaptation for Sunfuckers, also known as Ador. Yes. Three in total partnerships with Stephen Frears, because he did Dangerous Liaisons. He did Mary Riley, and then he did Cherie.

He did the script for Cherie as well. what else is on the Christopher Hampton you mentioned a dangerous method bad company but not the Roger Michelle bad company oh god it's the Anthony Hopkins Chris Rock bad company isn't that Roger Michelle am I wrong Is it? Oh I have no no I'm thinking of what's the one I'm thinking of changing lanes the Ben Affleck Samuel Jackson

That is Roger Michelle Christopher Hampton did direct the poorly received imagining Argentina with Antonio Banderas and Emma Thompson Oh shit notoriously booed I believe at Venice

Actually kind of a lot of Emma Thompson because he also did write and direct Carrington the movie where she has the Vanessa Redgrave haircut from Atonement

Oh my God, it's all coming together Holy shit Yeah So yeah Works a lot Not in a great moment With the Sun But like

He was Oscar nominated for the father Only a few years ago So like He's also attached to the Definitely going to happen Sunset Boulevard movie That just absolutely is going to happen The people

Okay like A I do kind of want Glenn Close To be able Movies like this don't exist But movies like this, 101 Dalmatians, even Stepford Wives, like, where Glenn Close gets to have fun with this, like, bullshit movie. I want it to happen. I want that movie to happen. I don't understand the people who are hedging all their bets on Glenn Close getting an Oscar for this Sunset Boulevard movie.

Sunset Boulevard is a terrible musical, and she deserves better than a terrible musical. I don't know the whole musical. Am I wrong to think? There's a reason because it's bad music. But am I wrong to think that as if we never said goodbye is a good song? Because I really think that's a good song. I really like that song. And her performance of it is really great.

A lot of Andrew Lloyd-Weber scores that are not like his best work. Yeah. Are like, there's maybe two songs in them that are good. And then the rest of it is... I really like her performance of that song. I think she's very good. Anyway, a lot of Glenn Close talk in this episode, which I'm happy about... All right.

Razzie nominations for Mary Riley. I like how you wrote in the document Lost in Scare Quotes Lost both of its Razzie nominations to strip tease a movie I don't remember whether I've seen or not I think I have

but I remember very little beyond like Bert Reynolds kind of lubed up in a scene in a way that like I don't love to remember I remember her and Ving Rames at least from the trailer where they show up somewhere

and they're like what are your names and I think they say they're George Bush Barbara Bush. They do. Yes, they do. Poor Demi Moore. God, speaking of actresses who were sort of put through the ringer in the mid-90s, Jimmy Moore, yeah, she wins the worst actress away from Julia, and who directed striptease? No, I gotta get into there. Andrew Bergman.

Who directed what else? Let's see. Mama let's research. Mama let's research. also wrote one of the writers of Blazing Saddles he directed It Could Happen to You The Lottery Ticket movie Sure Honeymoon in Vegas The Freshman which is the godfather Wait what about Blazing Saddles

He was one of the writers on it Blazing Saddles has like 15 credited writers Oh he also directed a movie I think I brought up on Mike Isn't she great That is his last time I think you did yeah

Okay. Somebody, who was I talking to recently that watched that movie and was like, Chris, what the fuck is wrong with you? This movie is garbage. You also wrote that Mary Riley competed at the Berlin Film Festival with a lot of big movies from 1995. Yeah, it would have played Berlin. Some shit must have been in the water because it has a lot of 95 Oscar contenders. So is it 95 movies playing in Berlin in 96? Is that the deal?

Yes. So it plays Berlin as it's basically opening. Right. And then a lot... It used to be that you would see a lot of Oscar contenders playing Berlin in... After. Like during... After they had opened in the States, but as they're in the Oscar race...

Especially when the Oscars would be held in late March, early April. Right. This is also how all the three headliners of the hours won Best Actress that year. Right. Because it opened. in the States and then played Berlin. But it's a good lineup. If I'm in Berlin in 96, like I'm seeing Dead Man

Walking, great movie, sense and sensibility, great movie, get shorty, great movie, the Ian McKell and Richard the 3rd, which I think is really good, and 12 monkeys, which I really like, and then, of course, top it all off with the Paul Mazurski Bomb Faithful starring

share, which is one of the few shares that I've never seen, so I still probably should. I don't think it's super easy to get your hands on. I don't imagine it would be. If you pull up the IMDB page, there's nothing streaming and you can't even rent it on Amazon. Share bought all the copies and locked them in a room somewhere.

What's funny about this poster is, like, there's an actual, she's tied up to a chair in pajamas, and there's a bull's eye on her, like a full target. It's that her husband has hired a hitman to kill her, right? And Chas Palman Terry's the hitman. Is that the deal? You know, sure, probably. I think that's it.

But the actual bullseye at the target that half of it surrounds her and half of it is in the middle looks like the logo to the department store target. So it's like the most roughup target ad you've ever seen. That's great. I'm trying to go through my notes and see, oh, back on the accent thing, I forgot to say, with John Malcovic just sort of like brazenly declining to use any kind of accent at all. and yet he pronounces laboratory laboratory, even though, and does it in his just like flat American accent?

It's so weird to hear that pronunciation that way. Glenn Close saying, keep your wool on, good line. What else? Oh, okay. So Mary Riley comes back to Glenn Cloth's closest brothel because she's been summoned there because Mr. Hyde has done something bad, and she walks into the room and she's like, I'll show you what he did in the room.

And she walks into the room and there's like blood everywhere, blood on the ceiling, blood everywhere. And then they cut to a shot of what looks like a giant rat that is bloody in such a way where I'm like, did Mr. Hyde fuck that rat? Because there's a disemboweled rat. And I thought that too. I was like, is the implication that he fucked a rat to death. Yes.

And like, I don't. want to know and okay there also is followed the rats yet because she Mary Riley is also afraid of rats because her abusive father locked her in a closet

with a rat the rat was in a bag so it's like there's also the torture if she has to wait for the rat to eat its way out of the bag and then it's going to like eat her she has all these scars over her body including her fucking neck because they're from a rat

biting her. I had just, I've been watching the screeners for the Guillermo del Toro produced horror anthology on Netflix called Cabinet of Curiosities. And one of the episodes, which is by the director of Splice, by Vincenzo Natale, and that episode, these are all like hour-long horror shorts, is about this grave robber who keeps trying to rob graves, but the rats are getting to it first. I was going to say, it's about a grave robber who fucks a rat. Well, he ends up in this cavern of rats, and it is so, it's so funny that you said, like, Mary Riley has a fear of rats, like, as opposed to, like, everybody else who's, like, super chill with rats, but, like, like, like, I mean, I'm fine. Oh, God.

I'm going to be afraid of a rat. Chris, I've been on enough public transit that a rat isn't going to bother me. Absolutely. I mean, I don't want to run in my home. Absolutely not. So rats are not, my friend, this moment or ever. What else is going on? Did he fuck that giant rat?

Oh, that's followed by Mary Riley then confronting Dr. Jekyll and saying the line, it felt like someone had been done to death in that room, which just feels graphic in a way that, whatever. The scene where Mr. Hyde is sort of being very aggressively flirtatious with her and sort of comes up from behind her and puts his hand, and her eyes bug out like she is in a Tex-Avery cartoon. Like, it is very, like, it's just like, bluh, like, it's very unsubtle acting. Two thumbs up from Siskelene Ebert, and Professor Quirill look and asked, like, that's, yes, those are the end of my notes. So, um,

Mary Riley, that's, that's what I got. The accent, I do feel like is something we should maybe leave on because Julia has never really done many of them. And, like, for good reason, but, like, you can see the effort that she's doing to like I don't know I also felt like

there was an effort to make her look plain like we've talked about soft de-glams in a way that I was like she is lit so horribly

and washed out in this movie that just feels maybe not her fault but like tryhardy in a way that like is not doing the movie any favors

I don't know the accent though I text you last night knowing that it would torment you I was like I don't I don't know. I think Sarsha's doing a good job in this movie. Did you see the things that I texted you before we started, by the way?

I did. I did. The fan video of Mary Riley and Mr. Hyde set to Taylor Swift's safe and sound. You can absolutely find any type of problematic, romantic situation in a movie set to the most random Taylor Swift song. Guaranteed, no matter what the movie, whatever Taylor Swift song you're expecting, it will not be the one that is just. Also, I don't know whether this is a broader YouTube trend, but it's something that I found while I was looking up Mary Riley clips is there are multiple clips of the end credits of Mary Riley from a television broadcast where like the credits are shoved to the side of the screen and you see like the network promos for stuff, which like there was one for AMC, there was one for like TCM or whatever. I don't know whether this is a broad YouTube trend or just somebody really liked Mary Riley and also television bumpers. But so there's this one from when it aired on Bravo in 2003, which is a really, like, crossroads of culture moment where it's like it's back when Bravo still showed mostly movies and had these little like interstitials where it's like, here's some tidbits about the movie, followed exactly by a promo for the upcoming queer eye for the straight guy episode. So it's just like, oh, culture was changing. Bravo was going from an arts network to a reality TV network. discovering that its audience was gay men and that changed things forever.

Should we move on to the IMDB game? Yeah, why not? Would you like to tell our lovely listeners what the IMDB game is? Yeah, but I'm not whispering because that made me hyperventally last time. Every week we end our episodes with the IMDB game where we challenge each other with an actor or actress to try and guess the top four titles that IMDB says they are most known for. if any of those titles are television, voice-only performances, or non-acting credits. We mentioned 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. That's it. That's the I-O-D-B game. Are you giving or guessing first? I'll guess first. All right. So we've talked a little bit about Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde movies, especially this era of Bram Stuckers, Dracula, Mary, Shelley's,

Frankenstein, et cetera, blah, blah. What I didn't mention was a different Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyderiff, also Razzie nominated in the 90s. Are you aware that Sean Young in... I was just about to bring this up. Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde. I was just to bring this up. I was like, was that Sean Young in that movie? It's a piece of shit.

Boy, I do remember that. I remember that being a film, but I don't. remember, I don't think I ever saw it, but yes. For you, I have chosen, Sean Young. Okay, so, Blade Runner got to be number one. Correct. Okay. I'm going to say with the recent popularity of the remake that Dune is on there.

Aracus is a desert planet, Deroon. Okay. Where do we go from here with Sean Young? You know what? I don't know how much... Oh, wait, what's that movie called? God damn it. I can't remember what that movie's called now.

I'm going to skip it. Get there. Talk about it. Well, first, I'm going to guess Ace Ventura Pet Detective. Incorrect. Thank God it's not there. Horribly offensive. Okay. No, it's the Karina Longworth on her erotic 80s had the Kevin Costner movie that is called, and I keep, the title that keeps bumping into my head is at close range, which I know is the Sean Penn. That's Christopher Walken. Christopher Walken movie. It's not an decent proposal. It's not internal affairs. I'm like literally going like every erotic thriller that's sort of like around it. You're using too many big words.

It's, uh, you have it, but you're going to get the title. It's out of something. It's no way out. No way out. There we go. Kevin Costner posts his whole titty on that poster. It is full boob on Maine. So that is on her note.

It's no way out. You have one wrong guess. You have one remaining title. Okay. I will eat my hat if it's Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde. That's not an actual promise. I'm not like doing a Matt Patch's thing on here. I'm not going to, you're not going to hold me to that.

But I will be very surprised if it's Dr. Jickland, Miss Hyde. No, there was another 80s one that she did. I feel like that was like a big one for her. Obviously, it wasn't Batman Returns. She did not get the role of Catwoman and Batman Returns. Timmy did not give her the role. Wait. Is she in stripes?

Is that her? She is in stripes. Are you guessing stripes? Yes. Incorrect. Okay. Give me a year. Your year is 2017.

Oh, fuck. Oh, is it Blade Runner 2049? It's Blade Runner 2049. Where she's deep faked against her will. They didn't use her. This is fucked up. Yeah, it is. I love that movie, but it is.

It's the first time somebody has a movie and they're known for that they're not in. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that is unfortunate. Do they use flashback footage in the movie? I think they do. I think they use the footage from the original. But it's a deep fake.

Like, I think that movie is just fine without her in it. Right. I think. I think that's a great movie. I think that's the least essential part of it for me. But mileage may vary. That's a really interesting known for, Chris. Very good choice.

All right. I went in Dr. Jekyllis. and Ms. Hyde is the connective tissue, you fucking maniac. Who else was in that movie? Hold on. Not Stephen. Who's Jekyll? I imagine she's the Ms. Hyde, so who's Jekyll? Oh, Tim Daly from Wings.

Tim Daly. Sure. Sure. Harvey Firesteen's in that movie. Stephen Toboloski. Look at that. That's great. Good for everybody. Good for everybody in that.

Polly Bergen. Listen. All right, so for you, I went into the Stephen Freer's filmography, his very first movie, which is called Gumshoe, where the main character, is a comedian who tries to be a private eye. The star of that movie, who was Bafton nominated, was Albert Finney. Albert Finney. Albert Finney. Tom Jones. Incorrect, actually.

even though it won best picture at the Academy Awards, not Tom Jones. Aaron Brockovich. They're called boobs, Ed? Yes, Aaron Brockovich. Do they teach beauty queens how to apologize? Because you suck at it. Just great. This is going to be difficult, I fear.

Yeah. Because, okay, what older movies might be in there? How long did he live? Because I don't think there were a ton of post-air and Brockett. He only died a few years ago, I will say. Yeah, IMDB is going to favor the past 20 years. Albert Finney was also in... Did he do another Soderberg?

I feel like he did. What did I just watch with Albert Finney? it's a good question this is going to be so embarrassing um is he in like a michael man movie I know that there's I'm like I can think of a criterion cover

in my head that's Albert Finney he never got nominated after Aaron Brockovich right I don't think he had many nominations before Aaron Brockovich that aren't Jones, there was also... He was nominated for five Oscars in his career.

Oh, really? Never mind. One of which is a movie that's on has known for. It's not like Lion and Winter, but there's a movie like Lion and Winter. There's... What else would he have been nominated for? Now I'm thinking of Peter Firth. Because they're so similar. This is bad.

I'm going to need one. More hints. Peter Finch, you're thinking of. Network, right? Yeah. Peter Finch, not Peter. Peter. Peter Firth was the one in Equis.

Okay. So, hints. We're starting the hints early. The one that was Oscar nominated has been remade recently. Okay. It won. He was nominated for an Oscar. It won Best Supporting Actress that year.

And it was recently remade. Recently remade. And supporting actress. winner, not West Side Story, obviously. And the remake got a sequel. Oh, weird. Yeah. And it's like an iconic character.

Oh. And not a... It's not Alfie. That's Michael Kane. Right. Remade by a British actor-director... who, like, remade that movie, then made that movie sequel, and then had a real big Oscar success.

Oh, wow. Is it... And that all happened within the last five years. In the last five years? Okay. So people making remakes and then having big Oscar success. It's not Guillermo del Toro. The remake is after. I don't like the remake, and nobody liked the remix sequel, I don't think.

I could imagine. The sequel got, like, really lost in COVID stuff, and also one of the stars of it got, like, really, really, really bad press as it was coming out. Ezra Miller. No. But you're not on the wrong track. Okay, so somebody who did bad things. And whose movies are getting, like, buried as a result? Army Hammer.

Yeah. Army Hammer. Ooh, what was he in? Oh, he's an Oscar nominated for Murder on the Oriane Express. I'm an idiot. There you go. Murder on the Orient Express. Murder on the Orient Express.

Okay. So your other two movies, one is 2003, one is 1970. Okay, so 2003 is post Aaron Brockovich. And I feel like it might be a Soderberg. It's not. That he, huh? It's not. He's only done three Sodabergs.

two of which were Brockovich in traffic in the same year and then he did an uncredited sort of cameo in Ocean's 12 It's a major director though And like similar to the Soderberg crew Right Not really

He's sort of distinct It's a movie we would be able Is it like Ridley Scott? It's not It's a movie we should be able to do for this podcast But it has that one little nagging Oscar nomination Like a cinematography nomination, a score.

I believe it is score. From 2003. Okay, 2003 movies. Let me get there. Of movies that were close. Is it like a political thriller movie? No, this is a director with a very sort of like specifically, specific vibe that every time he steps out of this vibe, people are like, oh, maybe Oscar nomination. we've done one of his films on this podcast before

where our guest is a very recent guest who came back to do something else oh sophia coppola no no um oh horay who is going to be pissed at me for not knowing pro row um so not Miguel Arcetta what was Jorge's first movie oh big eyes Tim Burton it is big eyes.

It's not big eyes. No, it's big fish. It's big fish. It's big fish. Yes. Big fish, big eyes, big everything. Just that's the Tim Burton. And then we're back to 1970.

1970 is the one I was like, oh, he's going to have trouble with it. So if you've had trouble with the other two, I'm concerned. I couldn't remember that he's in Big Fish and I forgot. If Hercule Poirot was an iconic character, this is like an even more iconic character. Like one of the like top 20 most well-known characters in. literature film, whatever. Like, this this was a musical

adaptation, I believe, of this story, which is like from a novel, from one of, like, the great writers of all history. Shakespeare. No, but like later than Shakespeare. One of the Brontes.

No. I think it's later than the Brontes. maybe not that much later I don't know time Not an American writer A British writer No a British writer Henry James No

Like way more like oft adapted Oh Adapted and re-adapted And this particular product Is like adapted Eight Bajillion times By every possible genre

And It's seasonal Wow. Okay, so it's Christmas. Oh, Scrooge! He did a Scrooge movie. He did. I could, that's like the most, that's so fucking, I have not, I have not had a worst performance ever in the IMB. Scrooge was nominated for four Oscars for 1970. Yeah, I've seen that Scrooge, I believe it. I've never seen it. So Albert Finney's five Oscar nominations are for Aaron Brockovich for he famously never won. Aaron Brockovich, Murder on the Orient Express, also nominated for Tom Jones, as you mentioned. The one you were thinking of that's not the lion in winter, I think, was maybe the dresser.

Yeah. And then he was nominated for the 1984 movie Under the Volcano, the John Houston movie Under the Volcano, where he plays, I think it's some sort of like international intrigue kind of a thing. um i've never seen it but i've always been uh curious to see it interesting career albert finney last movie he ever made skyfall oh yeah yeah all right all right well done that was mary riley joe we finally did it we did it we did the mary riley episode i hope listeners enjoyed it uh even if you didn't that is our episode If you want more this had Oscar Buzz, you can check out the Tumblr at this had oscarbuzz.com. Please also follow us on Twitter.

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More buzz. Bye. When you became Dr. Jekyll, you knew you had to hide. Yeah, when you became Dr. Jekyll, you knew you had to hide. Well, now I know, well, now I know, all the pain that was in your mind is still inside your soul.