This Had Oscar Buzz - 226 – The Leisure Seeker

Episode Date: January 9, 2023

When the 2017 Golden Globe nominations were announce, the question on everyone’s mind was “What the hell is The Leisure Seeker?!” Starring Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland as an aging couple having one last getaway in their eponymous Winnebago, the film debuted in competition at Venice before also playing a TIFF gala and went entirely under … Continue reading "226 – The Leisure Seeker"

Uh-oh, wrong house. No, the right house. No, I didn't get that! We want to talk to Marilyn Hecht and trash. I'm from Canada water. Check it out. 75, Winnevago, India. I named it the leisure seeker. We've had a lot of wonderful trips in this old Rust Bucket.

I'm finally taking John to see Hemingway's house in Key West. Kids, we won't be gone long. You know that Dad can't drive in his condition. Where are we? We're not home. No, hon. This is Pennsylvania. I said Dickens are we doing in Pennsylvania? It's just something I really need to do with your father. Who's that?

That's the littlest one. He's got a name. And it's Will. Well, yeah, William. Who are these people? Your nephew's nieces. No, they're your students. Hello and welcome to the This Had Oscar Buzz podcast, the only podcast that is making the most of our ridiculous mustache.

Every week on This Had Oscar Buzz we'll be talking about a different movie that once upon a time had Lofty Academy Award aspirations, but for some reason or another, it all went wrong. The Oscar hopes died, and we are here to perform the autopsy. I'm your host, Joe Reed. I'm here, as always, with my gentleman of leisure, Chris File. Hello, Chris. Isn't there like an old, like 90s, S&L bit? I'm trying to not confuse it with the Continental. But wasn't there something about a man of leisure?

What's the man of leisure? It sounds plausible. It sounds deeply plausible. Or maybe that's like an Austin Powers thing. Are you meaning to say, if I am your gentleman of leisure, are you calling me the titular leisure seeker? Am I a method of transportation? Okay, can I talk?

Because listeners, can we say off the top? Yeah. There is a titular leisure seeker, and it is not Helen Mirren. and it is not Donald Sutherland. It's their camper. It's their damn camper. Here's the other thing, and this is perhaps the biggest surprise off of the top. And, like, in a movie that held a couple of surprises for me and we'll get to him, the fact

that this was a movie that was sight unseen by both of us, neither one of us had seen it. I had never seen so much as a trailer for it. I had famously, and we'll get to this, guest to the Helen Mirren Golden Globe nomination sight unseen. That no one else in the world guess. I assumed it was the leisure seeker because it was Helen Mirren, and she's Dame Helen Mirren, and she's, you know, good in English, and then get into this movie, not only they're American, but it's pronouncing it the leisure seeker like some damn Midwesterners,

and it feels so much less fancy now. Don't you drag my culture? Listen, I, listen, Buffalo is the Midwest of New York State, so I can see this, too. It sounds so much less fancy now. I was at least hanging on to the idea The leisure seeker. Now it's just like we're in the leisure seeker. It's just like, okay, well, you know, I respect you less now. Sorry.

What else do you do but seek leisure when in a Winnebago? What do old people do except seek leisure and lie? Like that's... This movie, I'm kind of dying to hear what you, no pun intended, to hear what you thought about it because I'm watching it yesterday

and I'm trying to work through my own feelings about it because like I go into these movies, especially these movies that are like super out of the way, like super small you know, Oscar curiosities. And I'm like maybe I will find a hidden gem.

Maybe I will find my Danny Collins. I'm always on the hunt for another Danny Collins. I will say this was not a Danny Collins. It's not a Danny Collins. However, just to, like, if we're talking about our responses to this movie, I feel like I have to, like, lay some groundwork for the listeners who have no idea what this movie is, and when it popped up in their feed, they said, what the hell is.

Oh, right. Yeah. So the leisure seeker, aforementioned, uh, Dame Helen Mirren received a Golden Globe for Best Actress in Musical or Comedy. nomination. Out of nowhere. Out of nowhere. Who could have predicted it?

On nomination morning, everyone was like, what the hell is the leisure seeker? And who had predicted this to happen, but none other than our treasured Joe Reed? This guy. When I saw that prediction, I was like, oh, yeah, that's going to happen. Of course, everybody should be predicting this because. And I predicted it like morning of. It was like a very last minute thing where I was like, I should just throw out some like for shits and giggles predictions. for the Golden Globes. And I was like,

Helen Mirren is eligible for a movie called The Leisure Seeker in Musical or Comedy. Hell, yes, that's going to happen. Like, absolutely 100%. This is post her being nominated, I believe Post, being nominated for the 100-foot journey. A movie, I will say. Which had an actual campaign. I had seen that movie prior to her getting nominated, and I was actually quite happy for that because it's kind of a lovely movie.

Part of the reason no one knew what the hell this was, it had played in competition at Venice, and I believe was a gala at... I think you're right. I think you're right. And still was, like, the most anonymous movie. It still just absolutely on nobody's radar. Really didn't register at either of those festivals. Yeah. Sony Classics had it or picked it up at that point. And they only did it for a qualifying run. It didn't get its real theatrical release until... to 2018, take a look at Sony classics lineup this year and they have multiple qualifying releases, as they tend to do. As they tend to do. Especially

for international feature competitors. So this movie kind of ended up getting looped into those Golden Globe curiosity is like infinitely polar bear, right? Where it's like nobody's ever heard of it. The title sounds like a parody of a movie that would be nominated for awards and he's basically a this had Oscar buzz punchline essentially if we had made like this had Oscar buzz the movie and we needed a handful of fake movies to talk about a movie called the

leisure seeker starring Helen Mirren that is a golden globe nominee for best actress in a musical or comedy like that's what we like that's what our writer's room would have come up with if we had this had Oscar buzz game show there would certainly be some type of game. The price is right of this had Oscar buzz. There would be a leisure-seeker type of game. I do like that we are both steadfastly dedicated to not pronouncing it leisure. I'm very happy for us. I won't let go, Jack. I'll never let go. We are many things. Midwestern or faux-Midwestern, but we are also gay. We're going to put on airs, and that is all there is to it. So basically, again, this movie is kind of a punchline movie. That it's like, it's a fake

movie doesn't exist. No one has seen it. So, like, that's where we're coming from and doing this. We also, because this is, we are, I believe, on the eve of the globes. I was going to say, this is our Golden Globes are back baby episode. We're talking about the Globes and we're talking about essentially weird Golden Globe nominations that happen. Yeah. I've been spending a lot of time trying to justify my enthusiasm for having the Golden Globes back. Because, like, it now more than ever, it feels naughty to be enthusiastic

about the Golden Globes. It feels somewhat you know, shunnable that I'm so happy to have them. And it's just like, and it's you know, obviously, whatever. I'm not going to get into discussions of like, you know. It's like that meme how bad or bad. Where you have the two

people on the train and one of them is looking at the beautiful sunset on one day. on one side of the train, and the other is looking at, like, the cave wall. The sad rocks. And what it is is you like the globes or you don't like the globes, but you're both saying, the globes are terrible. Right, right. Well, and this is, yes.

And I think a lot of the, when you get past the idea of, like, everything about the golden globes that, like, is justifiably rotten. Yeah. There's this idea that, like, oh, but they're also, like, um, they're completely fabricated, right? They're completely, you know, it's all about who you campaign, blah, blah, blah. And it's like, and people sort of pull that card out.

It's like, you know that, like, the studios, like, purchase these votes. You know that the studios pay for these lavish, whatever, whatever. Go back to our episode on the muse for, um, look at our episode on the tourist also, yeah. And they're sort of pulling out that card like it's news. And it's just like, yeah, like, we, we, we, get it, we go with that flow. It's, it's their thing about the globes that is

embarrassing and, you know, not reputable is part of the fun and of enjoying the globes because it's all pageantry. Like, not even respectable pageantry, but like, I don't know. I think we as gay people can understand that, but when you see we can hold two truths about, but here's the other thing. Straight bro critics judging it. It's like, you don't get it. It's not talking. It's also the fact that I talk all the time about all I want out of a movie awards ecosystem is for each little component part to have its own idiosyncrasies, right? I want the New York film critics to be their own particular thing. I want the Screen Actors Guild to have their own tendencies and preferences.

I want BAFTA to do BAFTA things. And the more that each of these component parts can be their own quirky little selves, that's better for me. And I like the fact that, like, the absolute sort of no-taste, taste of the Golden Globes, like, is their vibe. And the other thing that I thought of was, in terms of, like, the bribery of it all, like, the shameless shilling and bribery of it all, it's not like the movies that end up nominated for the Golden Globes were the only ones that year who tried to buy their way into the Golden Globes. Like, they all try to do it. They can't nominate all of them. So it still comes down to the Hollywood foreign press having weird, weird, specific taste.

And that, at least to me, is a little fascinating. Well, and you also kind of, I think, I mean, maybe this is getting into the weeds, but I think it's nuance that's valuable in terms of, like, where we're at with the Golden Globes and, like, enjoying them. It's like, there's a difference between the Hollywood. Wood Foreign Press Association and Dick Clark Productions, which put the Golden Globes on the air and put the Golden Globes on the

map, made it, they are, you know, making it a ceremony where all these stars go and get drunk and, you know, and they're also not perfect because they're the ones who kept inviting Ricky Jervais back for like several more times. But also, like, one thing

I think about the Globes that is very interesting is like, you know, they've, in combating the type of institutional problems that they've had, and they've invited these new members, a slew of new members to their ranks. And I believe they're trying to boot some of the, you know, worst offenders in their ranks. Right. But, like, their nominations still stay the same tenor of Wild. To me, I say, especially if you look at their TV nominations. Still, it's like, what? Here's the other. And I've said this before.

If your complaints about the Golden Globes are, if the top 10 of your complaints about the Golden Globes have anything to do with their television nominations, get right out of the room. I don't want to talk to you. The Golden Globe television nominations might as well be a game of like darts, right? Just like throwing darts at a board. It could not matter to the degree to which the movie awards don't matter. The television awards really don't matter.

And it's kind of wild to me that any kind of comeuppance, and I'm using, once again, fantastic Mr. Fox quote marks. comeuppance for the Golden Globes was spurred by people being mad about their television nominations, which are, which are a literal joke. Like, they are there to pat out the running time and star count of the Golden Globes ceremony. That is the only thing they are there for. Well, and some, like, there is a history of, like, I think you've even written about this, the idea of the Golden Globe engenue of television, that it's like, there is always the one that it's like. It's the last thing they saw before they left the house that day. That's what. they vote for. Well, and maybe it's, a lot of the history is very, uh, you know, biased towards new programs and such. But like, it's also people who watch Wednesday and Jenna Ortega for Wednesday win this year. Like that's going to win that glow. 100% period. 100%. Does she deserve it? No. But does it matter? No. Absolutely not. But there's people in the past who have that like the Emmys never

really recognized like Rachel Bloom. Exactly. Exactly. Carrie Russell for Felicity. Jennifer Garner. for alias. Like, yes. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And like, is it nice to see those people except in a golden globe? Right. I'm glad that all of those things happened. Yes, absolutely. 100%. So that is my... And then sometimes people get drunk and have wild speeches. I don't know what Jacqueline Bisset I'm talking about. It's so funny that that's the first thing that I thought of, too, even though she's far from the only one. But then there's also the shot in Freud, the joy, the curveball of, of... of, you know, they're absolutely horrible, absolutely bought, whether it was bought with actual campaign dollars from the studios, or by glad-handed and bought with time and FaceTime of

famous people, like Aaron Taylor Johnson. Like, God bless that, though. God bless Aaron Taylor Johnson. I'm glad he got his. For an awful movie, but God, do I enjoy Aaron Taylor Johnson, so I'm glad that that happened. Yeah, it's crazy. it's wild. I'm so glad that they're back and I'm declining to feel abashed about that anymore. So there we go. What else do you do by

watching the Golden Globes then seek leisure? 100%. I am a leisure seeker when I sit down in front of the Golden Globe Awards. That is absolutely true. So we condemn all the horrible things we've done. The award ceremony is different. You can boot all of the horrible people. And the Globes should say the Globes, and I think they are at this point. I think we are in agreement there. All right. So back to The Leisure Seeker, a movie that, again, exists in this Schrodinger's box of, you know, is it there if we don't see it? Is it plausible or whatever? We opened the box, and there it actually was right there on Amazon Prime Video. And we're going to talk about it. and in talking about it

it's an odd little document, right? Like what I was trying to think of like a movie that I was going to compare it to on a tone level, on a subject matter level. It's about a married old couple. They both have, we learn fairly early on, even if we don't learn the specifics, they both have terminal illnesses, right?

We can tell that she has something, probably cancer, because, you know, she's wearing a wig and that's sort of cinematic shorthand. And he very obviously, from an early stage, like has dementia, Alzheimer's, some kind of thing. And so they're on a road trip against their children's wishes. We'll get into the plot description, obviously, so I'm not going to go too far into it.

But, like, we've seen that kind of general premise for a movie, right? Older people dealing with terminal illness, older people sort of breaking free from the chains of you know, what their children feel like is safe for them to do. Totally, though, I could not pin this thing down for the life of me. And I wonder if you had a similar experience. I didn't, I kind of went with it a little bit more, and totally I kind of got it. You know, it's the type of thing that wants to be funny when it wants to be funny and

wants to be a weepy when it wants to be a weepy, like it, you know, it's very much that type of crowd pleasing for a certain crowd, uh, type of movie that, you know, wants to have a cake and eat it to. Well, but then it wants to like make a statement about the Trump election and it wants to say something about like autonomy, end of life autonomy decisions, right? And it wants to say something. It kind of half says it too. And it feels like it happens to it by accident. Yeah. Because listeners, we're going to tell you some wild things about this movie.

It is a Trump election time capsule. The movie opens with a caption that says like August 29th, 2016. And I say to myself, that's... Your stomach just drops right through to the floor at that point.

And the song cue that opens the movie is Carol Kings, it's too late. And then you see like a Trump flag flying down the street. And I was like, oh, no. The song cues in this movie are very much like your mom and dad's record collection, in a way, for better and worse. Closing credits cue is me and Bobby McGee. Of course it is 100%.

You could have set your watch to that one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, but it doesn't do as much of that as I feared it would from that opening. But, like, they do randomly end up in a Trump rally, and he, the husband, played by Donald Sutherland, ends up like... Getting invested in the crowd because he has full-blown dementia and thinks that he's just having fun and has no idea what they're saying or doing. Which is, do you get it? Do you get the commentary that only somebody with a mentally declining state could support Donald Trump? And they filmed this movie in the summer of 2016.

So it feels like it was something that was kind of added on the fly, which I think is... is confirmed by the movie because it's like none of that thread is really developed all that much. You could just as easily excise it from the movie than... I do tend to cut movies a bit of a longer rope when it comes to that kind of thing because I do, as I have said before, feel like this country suffered a psychotic break somewhere along that presidential campaign and election and we have yet to recover from it and we maybe never will. So, like, that election broke our brains and made everybody in this country in one direction

or another absolutely full-blown insane. And it's never, like, we have not recovered from it. And so, like, anytime a movie addresses it at all, it all seems insane. And I'm like, well, of course. Like, there's no way around it. Like, this is why I say the good fight is the premier document of our times. Because, like, that is a show that very much intentionally tries to make. you feel crazy. And that is accurate and correct for our times. But anyway, that's only one small

scene in this movie. There's also, I kept momentarily being like, what is this movie trying to tell us about, you know, the American Midwest and like fast food and like, you know, elder care and, you know, suicide and illness and one of the... And then finally, I was just like, it's not really saying very much, even though it's touching on all of these things, but I also don't want to ding it for being, for not saying very much, because, like, it is ultimately making a good faith effort, I think, to make a movie about two characters such as these.

I don't think there is any sinister intent in this thing, ultimately, even though I don't think it really ends up saying much of anything. I think it's probably an example of a movie that not only has four credited screenwriters, but it's a movie that's just like kind of a sweet movie about this aging couple that is made by very serious people that they're trying to, you know, reach for deeper meaning. or, like, you know, themes for people to grapple on, but, like, not, it's not about any of those things. It's ultimately just a nice Saturday afternoon movie, which I liked a lot more than I thought I was. Okay, all right. I'm excited to get into it. I think I probably liked it less than you did, but, like, let's mix it up. Let's go for it.

I enjoyed myself. I mean, maybe it's because I was being the jerk and being like, well, it's just this. But, like, being just that, I was able to enjoy myself. Wow. The soft bigotry of low expectations by Chris Fyle. All right. We're going to get into the plot description in the second. Chris, crack your knuckles, get ready, fire up that Winnebago.

Throw away the bullets from your shotgun just in case. Get well and truly prepared. This is a movie. Just in case you want to shoot one of my old lovers who does not claim me. If you are worried that this. This was a movie that doesn't feature Helen Mirren brandishing a shotgun at two highway ruffians. Don't worry. It absolutely is.

All right, but Chris, you prepare. I will give the basics. We are talking about the 2017 film The Leisure Seeker, directed by Paolo Virzi, his first English-language film, if I am not mistaken, written by Stephen Amadon, Francesca Archie. Djibruji, Francesco Piccolo, and, of course, Paolo Verzi, based on the novel by Michael Zandurian, starring Golden Globe nominated Helen Mirren, never Oscar nominated Donald Sutherland, Christian McKay, Janelle Maloney, Dana Ivy, that wanton slut, Dick Gregory, and I'm using this in all caps, and doing the like Tiffany New York Pollard Beyonce meme, Danielle Deadweiler, who shows up late in this movie, and I about fell out of my chair, premiered in competition at the Venice Film Festival on September 3rd, 2017. Then, as Chris mentioned, played a Tiff gala September 8th, 2017, and then did not open until a limited release. It qualified for 2017 awards, but then did not.

open for real until a limited release on March 8th of 2018, at which point that Golden Globe Buzz had gone ice, ice cold. It did not make very much money at all, but Chris, I'm going to pull out my phone with my little stopwatch. Are you ready to do a 60-second plot description? Absolutely. All right, your time starts now. All right, so in The Leisure Seeker, we're following the Spencer's John and Ella. They are an elderly couple who get in their Winnebago and take off without the approval of their overprotective son and they're kind of somewhat absent but successful in her career daughter. Basically, this is just kind of a road trip movie. They get pulled over by the cops. They stop in diners. They meet a nice couple at a gas

station. All this, they're going to different various camping grounds. Meanwhile, what we're really seeing is the dynamic of their relationship where John is afflicted with dementia. He comes and goes he'll be like himself and like uh be present as himself for very brief moments and we see a lot of ella's frustrations with this meanwhile ella is also uh having a cancer diagnosis that she is keeping secret from basically everyone and we discover along the way as uh they visit the nursing home of one of her former lovers that john has always had jealousy about but also it's revealed that john has had an affair with their neighbor, played by Dana Ivy the Hussie, and

they basically reconcile all of this, and Ella asphyxiates them in the Leisure Seeker at the end of the movie, so that they can go peacefully together. 15 seconds over time, but I'm happy to let you do it. Yes, in fact, I cannot believe I went over time

on that. The titular leisure seeker becomes their quite literal tomb in this movie by the end. I don't think it was... What is the afterlife? if not the seeking of leisure. I don't think it was so much that nobody knew Helen Mirren had cancer. It was just nobody.

She didn't let it on to anybody on the road trip because the children do talk about. That she is like actively dying. Right. Because the children talked about how she was declining treatment and that's why one of the reasons why they were not happy that they were on this road trip. It's becoming so aggressive that she fears that she is going to go before him even though his dementia is aggressive. and he's not going to be able to be taking care of. Well, he also has a scene where he, in a moment of lucidity, tells her, when the time comes for him, load the shotgun, hand it to him, tell him that this is what he told her he wanted to do and then leave the room. And so this is a, you know, the permission slips for this, for this suicide by the end.

of this movie are written, I do feel like there's an ending, she writes a note, leaves a note for her kids, that is, gets, gets, you know, the voiceover treatment for the end of the movie. And one of the things she was just like, you're going to be mad about this, but you're also going to feel relieved because the burden of taken care of us is gone. And I was like, that brushes up on the edge of maybe making me feel a little bit icky that the, like, the sweet note almost that this movie goes out on. in this, like, isn't it nice that these two old people relieved the children of the burden of having to take care of them into, you know, through their, and it's like, I get. I mean, I, you know, support, you know, being able to choose your death at those times and, you know, people of their situation.

But, like, wouldn't the better question be, wouldn't it be great if they had a better way and more holistic way of being able to make that choice for themselves? Well, you know, rather than gassing themselves in a Winnebago. I just get a little bit icked out with this whole thing of just like, thank God their parents did the right thing and relieved their children of the burden. And it's just like, you could have maybe like finessed that the way you'd say that a little bit. I don't know. Well, Christian McKay, who I also did a full Tiffany Pollard when he showed up in the first five minutes of this movie, as their very American son. Is it because he absolutely does not suit that role? one bit. He's just like, it's the weirdest casting.

But also the like dynamic is like he is so overprotective, but you know, maybe emotionally ill-equipped to be the parent's caregiver. But the other daughter has this very successful career that they want to... Well, he's the like sad gay adult. Like there's so many points in this movie where they walk up where they walk up to the line of like Helen Mirren's character really like they're like dropping. hints like lead balloons where she's just like that was will's friend they were such close friends

back then whatever happened to that guy what she's actually doing is she's like tell me you're fucking gay before i die on the phone call yes on the phone call where she's like that business partner who you suddenly stopped talking to entirely was that you are and then like but like when she's going through the slideshows with the husband she's like that's will's friend brian he was always around. They got along so well together, and then we never saw them again. What do you, you know, it's just like, and then click, next slide.

It was a little, it was unsubtle in which, like, I don't count unsettledness against movies like this, because, like, you know, hit me with it. Like, let's not be it around the bush. You're not, you're not... We're not... We're not... We're not we're not the target demo for this movie. Sure. I mean, I feel like if this hadn't

been made by the people who made it, this could have very easily been, like, one of those, like, movies targeted towards Christians. Sure. You know, it's only for septuagenarians. It's also striking that this is a movie made by an Italian filmmaker, and it's his first English-language film. There is a kind of curiosity to this movie of, like, is this what American old people are like? Is this what they go to fast food restaurants? You get what, is that a happy swirl?

That sounds like the name of a milkshake you might have in one of your, in one of your fast-street restaurants, a happy swirl. And is this, is this the shabby way you treat your old people in your country? Okay, like, that's, all right, like, this is what you elected, you elected, all right? I know, like, Italians don't have a leg to stand on when it comes to electing fascists, but still. It was, it was just like there was almost like a feeling of, I brought up, Schrodinger's cat earlier, but a feeling of like peering into the petri dish

and being like, hmm, like what is going on here in this strange little country of yours? I guess it could have been even broader, I guess, for me, which is why I was willing to give it a long, like... There is specificity in this movie, which I appreciate. There's the

peculiarity. And I do feel like Mirren and Sutherland within the bounds of playing these characters, I think, do a good job. There's a few times where the script sort of calls for them to be a little wacky. And I'm just like, I'll see how that goes. But I think in general, they paint a good portrait. I think Niren tempers that.

I think she's kind of wonderful. I do not think that this is a bad Globe nomination. I've seen worse. I don't know if the movie's fully a comedy, but I have seen worse. I've seen worse. I've seen worse. Well, we'll talk about what's fully a comedy when we talk about the other nominations that year. But I want to talk about the movie for a little bit more before we move into the globes of it all,

because we're really going to, I think, go heavily into that nomination, because it really is the only reason why we can do this movie as an episode is because of that Golden Globe nomination. I... That scene where she's... she pulls out the shotgun is sort of a microcosm of the movie in general, where it's just like, now I'm having fun.

Now I'm having a good time. Do I feel good about it? Do I feel good about how good of a time I'm having with this scene? Because it is really kind of cheesy. But I'm watching Helen Mirren, again, brandishing a shotgun at two street tufts on the highway

and getting one over on them and they were so mean about, you know, stealing all their stuff. and I'm glad that she's, you know, she got, you know, pulled the wool over their eyes and whatever and is now chasing them away. And yet, I'm like, it is kind of gun-tote and granny in a way that, like, there's an element of clamp it to all of this. I don't know. Yeah, but it's not a Peter Farrelly movie. It's like, you know what the version of that movie is, and I don't think it's quite that.

I mean, some of it's pretty tempered. Well, and again, I was having fun. I was having a good time with that at that point. But there's a lot of like that. Like, they'll stop by a roadside, you know, the truck stop or whatever to get some food. And it's that classic scene of like, it's the almost famous scene, right? Where you walk out of the, the whatever, mini-mart, and the Winnebago's driving off without you. Only in this case, it's, you know, dottering old Donald Sutherland driving the Winnebago,

and he's left his wife behind. and like, what's she to do? Oh, these motorcycle guys are right here. Let's hop on the back of your Harley and hold your wig on so that it doesn't go fly enough and chase them down. And it's just, it's that kind of movie. And that's fine. You know? I don't know.

There are some, like, grace notes that I found interesting or, you know, somewhat moving. It has a really good sex scene, which I know listeners are going. going to probably recoil hearing some of this, but, like, I did find, you know, the emotional groundedness of it. Sure. Sure. It, of course, leads into, you know,

her, you know, setting up the Winnebago to end both of their lives. But it's like... Which is that, which by that point, we had all long seen it coming. Like, I don't know. Like, if anybody watching this movie, you must realize, from a very early stage, like, this movie will end

with the two of them dying. I have I initially thought that that was the purpose of this trip was to, like, take one last road trip, and at the end of it, we're going to, you know. Thelma and Louise off of the ass. Kind of. And maybe that was an idea in the back of her mind, but I do feel like we're supposed to get the sense that, like, this wasn't necessarily the plan. But there we were. And, yeah, I agree with you. This movie has its moments.

I think there's a conceit where they keep recurring to. she's showing him slides which is a little bit of a cliche in itself right your grandma and grandpa are showing you slides from the old vacations or whatever but it's to try and get him to remember things excuse me get him to remember things and it's a good device

there's a moment where a bunch of sort of drunk it semi drunken sort of like you know party dudes from a different a camper, happen upon them. And you're like, oh, are they going to be mean to these two old people? They seem like they're going to be mean to these old people. And she invites them to sit down

and watch the slides. And initially, she'll like go to a slide and it's like whatever she's pregnant or whatever. And they snicker for a second. But like, they eventually just sort of start watching the slides with them. And she's like, that's such and such. And those are his students. And they would come around every year. And like, those moments, were the ones that I ended up liking. Those sort of, uh, uh,

the movie doesn't quite go to the broad direction that you think it's going to go. And it has these moments of kind of sweet humanity. That's the stuff that like, it's me. I like that. Can we talk about what, uh, you could maybe call his final student?

Oh, okay. Wait. Because you text me right after her scene happened. And you were like, tell me when you, scream or something. Yeah, I was like, did you get to the part where I screamed out loud? Because, like, that's another one of these sort of recurring things is everywhere they go,

he may not be fully lucid, but he remembers his authors, right? He's a literature professor. So he remembers everything about Hemingway and Tennessee Williams and all of these people, and everywhere they stop, he finds somebody to sort of teach a little bit about, you know, Hemingway or you know just have a conversation about literary or just right but in a way of just sort of like in a way that you can imagine he was like in his earlier life where he probably was a person at a party who would get into who liked to sort of tell you something you didn't know about an author or something like that consummate college professor and so it's these very most of these conversations it's really him talking at somebody and they're always they aren't able to

engage and they're usually pretty polite about it you know what I mean and they're just like, oh, okay. And finally they end up at this restaurant and all of a sudden, who's the waitress at their table, but Danielle Deadweiler? And I- In full close-up, Danielle Deadwil. Literally, because I was like, I'm, you know, watching the movie and I'm making my notes

and I'm, you know, preparing the spreadsheet or the outline. And so I look up to the television and I literally, it was one of those double takes which is like, blah, blah, blah. And it's just like, Danielle Deadweiler. Are you kidding me? And so that went into my notes

immediately in all caps, Daniel Deadweiler. It's not currently there, but I do think at one point it wasn't her known for. Luckily, you know... I had no idea. I was not expecting her. Till and Station 11 have taken over. I did not read that far down into the cast list when I was watching the movie, so I was...

That was a pure surprise, and it was a delightful one at that. So, um, one scene wonder, Daniel Deadweiler, hopefully, hopefully soon to be an Oscar nominee. I'm not counting that chicken before it hatches, because like, you never know, but we'll see. Yeah, that was super fun. I thought Janelle Maloney, for as much as Christian McKay, I thought, was miscast. I thought Janelle Maloney had some good moments, the phone call she has with Helen Mirren.

She's, of course... No fault of hers that they are the least believable siblings ever. Well, it's mostly because I think Christian McKay sticks out like a sore thumb in a lot of ways from this. But, like, yeah. It reminded me for a little bit for as sort of like, you know, the sour children of these more interesting parents. It gave me Bridges of

Madison County vibes in a little bit where it's just like, get out of here, you ungrateful children. But yeah, she was good. Did you watch the leftovers? I know you didn't watch the West Wing, but did you watch the leftovers? I'd never finish the leftovers. But you remember her, I imagine, a little bit. She's Christopher

Ecclestone's comatose wife. Or not comatose, catatonic wife. she was you know a west wing person I think that's what most people know her from but um yeah what the dickens are we doing in Pennsylvania

beep beep Chris we're taking a detour off of our trek across America with Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland How dare you make me turn down my what did they listen to again I listen to um

How dare you make me turn down my Carol King How dare you make me turn down my What's the one at the end? Why do I want to keep saying Joni Mitchell? I don't know. I'm sure they listen to Joni Mitchell. All right. We're off to a roaring start here in this Vulture

Movies Fantasy League update. We are absolutely not recording this seconds after rolling out of bed. It's fine. We're bright-eyed, bushy-tailed. I have early on set dementia, but only about musical artists from the 1960s and 70s. Everything is great. No, we're here to talk about the Vulture Movies Fantasy League update coming at you mere days before the Golden Globe Awards and

the SAG nominations will throw the entire league into a fresh batch of chaos. But before that happens, Chris, we locked the Rotten Tomato scores for all of our movies. Big, big update. I'm sure that there was quite a bit of shifting happening on the leaderboard. Everybody got a lot of points. The points went around. Our top couple teams have stayed pretty consistent. It's this team called Issa, Issa,

who are holding on to the lead with their team made up of Tar and Elvis and Women Talking and Pinocchio, Bones, the Banshees, RR, and After Sun, which is a pretty, like, there are no, I guess the weak spot in that lineup is Bones, but, like, honestly, probably the end of the line for the Borns. But the Boons did get the Indy Spirit points. And the Indy Spirit awards are still to come. And, like, it could win an award there at the Indy Spirits.

You never know. But otherwise, like, that's a pretty... It's not a surprise that that team is hanging in first place, although I will say that the film that I think is going to win Best Picture at the moment, which is everything everywhere all at once, is not in that lineup, which means this is anybody's game, I still feel like, in the fantasy movie league, which is very fun. Um, but yeah, so on January 2nd, all of the Rotten Tomatoes scores essentially locked for every movie that's in the Fantasy League. And so points were then distributed thusly. And just to remind all our listeners in case you haven't committed all of these rules to memory, um, for Rotten Tomatoes, a 96 to 100 point score on Rotten Tomatoes got you 50 points, 86 to 95, got you 20 points. And so,

points, 75 to 85, got you 10 points, 65 to 74 got you five points, 26 to 64 got you nothing, and the bottom of the barrel, 0 to 25 point rotten tomato scores got you negative five points. Only one movie, Chris, fell into that negative five point zone. I asked you and Katie on her text thread to guess it earlier this week, and it took Katie a few guesses, but she finally got it. It was the adventures of Dr. Michael Morbius in Morbius. I believe Morbius got like, yeah, Morbius, what is that? 13 on Rotten Tomatoes?

What was the Morbius score? Hold on. I'll scroll down. I'm like, I'm not judging any gameplay here, but if you drafted Morbius... Six teams. Six whole teams had Morbius on their roster. I need them to show themselves. I need a power presentation showing their work

what the justification was for drafting Morbius. A 15 on Rotten Tomatoes. I could, the only justification I could see is visual effects nominations got to go somewhere. And sometimes visual effects nominations go to bad movies. I still wouldn't have picked it even on that basis. But I'm, listen, six proud teams had that movie on their roster and I'm not going to, I'm not going to shun them because they could very well be Gary's.

And we support Garry's in all of their decisions. But anyway, so there were. what did I say? There were eight movies that reached the pivotal top echelon, the 50 point tier of Rotten Tomato scores. Seven, I think it's seven. No, because if you look at the list for listing purposes, is that black enough

where you got 100 and that's for some reason listed at the bottom because alphabetizing in Excel or in Google sheets rather. It does weird. So is that black enough for is the only one that got 100%. Otherwise, we had Till and Sotomayr and Fire of Love with 98, banshees of Inasharon, and Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio with 97, and then Top Gun Maverick and After Sun with 96. Those are our top tier.

Those are our 50-point scores. I have three of those on my roster, which I was pretty happy with. Banjys of Inesheran, Pinocchio, Fire of Love, are all on my roster. I have four. Hit me with him. Till, Santa Mary, Fire of Love, and Banshees have been a Sharon. Not bad, Chris. Hog in those Rotten Tomatoes points.

I think the best that I saw anywhere was a four, was a roster with four of them. I don't know if I had seen, I haven't gone through every single roster, because that's a lot of rosters. But towards the top of the leaderboard, at least, I peruse rosters, and I don't think I had seen anybody with anything better than four. Oh, wait. I was wrong. There was one team that I saw at the top of the leaderboard, Team Skellert, which is now currently in fourth place, had five films that I saw in that top tier Rotten Tomato Sports.

They had Banshees, After Sun, Fire of Love, Till, and Pinocchio. So that's pretty good. Like props to Team Skellert for that. That's pretty rad. So the thing that's, to me, even more intriguing, though, are the movies that came one point short of the 50 point tier and thus are all the way down at 20 points. Like that's a 30 point swing on missing,

like I'm being one percentage point short on Ron Chabato's, which I think is fascinating. And those movies were everything everywhere all at once, which is doing fine. Like you have no place to complain if you have everything everywhere. Puss in Boots The Last Wish, which... Secretly making $100 million at the box office right now. And Boots, The Last Wish.

So Box Office has been so bad, the only movies since the league has started to have gotten the $50 million bonus, to have, you get a bonus in the league if your movie gets $50 million above, the only movies who have attained that before Puss and Boots were Wakanda Forever and Avatar. Like, it's been that kind of a year. Yeah. And so now Puss and Boots is going to get that $100 million bonus. It's still going to be the only the third movie to, uh,

to do that since the league started in November. And if it ends up with that animated feature nomination, that could be actually a really great pick for you. A good pickup, a good pickup, because let me go look and see how much that would cost you. Puss and Boots, the last wish, would it cost you five bucks? Like, that's a pretty cost-effective pick if it does in fact. If it does, in fact, get that animated feature nomination,

which it's not guaranteed for. but it's in good position. Speaking of that animated feature, Oscar, Turning Red was another movie that was just one point short of the top tier. I also have Turning Red on my roster, so I came close to having four, I will say. Or actually, close to having five,

because I also have everything everywhere all at once. The next one, I think, is probably cementing its place as one of the best buys per dollar value that you could have drafted. And if it had just gotten that, 96 instead of a 95, I guarantee. it would have been by the end of the season.

Well, already, we talked about the best values a week or two ago, two weeks ago, and that was a love song. A love song was already at the top of those charts with a dollar by and gotten a whole ton of points. So good for you, a love song. You're killing it this season. So we talked about Morbius being the only one that got people negative points, but were there any surprises for you?

You were like, that movie got reviewed better than I thought it did, looking at these Rotten Tomato Scores. I honestly thought that Tar was in the upper 90s, so that doesn't answer your question. It's like kind of the opposite of what you're asking. Yeah, I thought that that, I thought that Tar was going to get net me another 50 points, and I was completely wrong. Yeah. Oh, you know what? There is one more, now that I'm looking at this, oh, God, my newsletter was wrong. guys exclusive. My newsletter was slightly

wrong. It's because Google Sheets treats numbers in the way that I have sorted it, like the alphabet, which is dumb. Pokerface, which I believe was a... Hold on. I got to look up what this movie was. Poker face.

Yeah. Russell Crow, Liam Hemsworth, I believe this was a theatrical release, where Russell Crow plays a tech billionaire at a poker game, it's him and Liam Hemsworth, and who else is in this movie? Riza is also in this movie. This was back in the spring, I want to say, if I'm not mistaken, but I could be mistaken.

Nope, I was wrong. It was in November. And it also was probably streaming release. So I'm wrong on a lot of things about poker face. You guys, honestly, I'm going to admit, I'm going to take the L on this one that I don't know a ton about. the Russell Crow. Oh, God, and it's the one that he directed. There was a movie that Russell Crow directed and starred in

that we know virtually nothing about. Maybe that's on us. Maybe that's on us for not being as up to date on the Russell Crow of it all. But anyway, that movie got a nine on Rotten Tomato. So if you had picked that one. I want to see how many people picked poker face. Hold on. 24 teams picked poker face. Wow. That means the 20.

people know what poker face is. That was a dollar bet. I imagine. That was people who said, listen, for a dollar, I'm going to put my money on Russell Crow. And by that point, it hadn't opened yet. Like, by the time the Fantasy League started, it's not like Morbius. People knew what Morbius was. By the time the Fantasy League started, Pokerface hadn't opened yet.

So I could see you looking at that and being like directed by and starring Russell Crow, that could be something. He's an Oscar-winning actor. He's somebody who was, you know, once incredibly beloved by the Hollywood firmament. Why not? So I could see why 24 teams went and rostered poker face. But again, it did not help you. It got you negative five points on Rotten Tomatoes.

This is a little bit of a chaotic update, Chris. I'm sort of all over the place on this one. Yeah. We're learning stuff. To loop back and answer your actual question about things that I thought did better than I would have expected. Spoiler alert landed at an 83. I wonder if people were being maybe a little generous at the end of the year.

I think that movie is fine, but not. I didn't see spoiler alert, but I just, knowing what it's about, I would imagine that there is an impulse to not be mean to that movie, given that it's like a true story and it's such a sad tale that, I, as a reviewer, would probably not be, would not relish piling on that movie. And if I baby was mixed on it and they were like, what do you, when Rotten Tomatoes is like, so is your mixed review positive or negative? I would probably be inclined to just be like, yeah, it's positive.

Sure, sure. I mean, most of my things that made that not a good movie is that the star of the movie is miscast and not good at it. I've heard this. Yeah. Everything around it is, like, better, but like, still. still, uh, Jim Parsons is enough to make it not good. Um, nobody seems to like Jim Parsons, I will say. Where were all those Emmy voters who voted him all of those Emmys? Where are they now?

Where are they when I will just say he is definitely not a dramatic actor. Uh, all due respect to Jim Parsons. I don't want to be part of the Jim Parsons pile on, but like he's just not the not equipped for this movie. Um, again, I'm going to be soapboxy and say that I am surprised that Wendell and Wilde is only 80 that movie is just getting so screwed and it seems like... I'm not surprised. I could see that movie, I could see people watching that movie and being like, what did I just watch? Like, what? Like, the fact that Wendell and Wilde and Crimes of the Future

have the exact same Rotten Tomato score, like, doesn't super surprise me. Not the same movie, but, you know... Both movies not getting their due. So... So I'm looking at stuff like... All right, I just saw recently in the waning days of the year, I watched Ron Howard's 13 Lives, which is unquestionably, like, the best Ron Howard movie in years. Like, years and years and years. It's the best Ron Howard movie in a while. Depending on, give or take how well you liked Rush, because I know where there were some people who really liked Rush, I think this is the best Ron Howard movie, even including that. That's an 86 on Rotten Tomatoes. That was incredibly well-reviewed movie. If you were watching this award season on full. you would have thought that that movie was a piece of garbage, and Amazon wanted to make sure that nobody saw it because they were so embarrassed by it. Like, that would be the impression, given how much that movie was, like, swept under the rug by Amazon. And I don't get it because I'm not the only person who liked that movie.

Obviously, 86 and Rotten Tomatoes, I've heard people being like, you know what's a better movie than people are thinking? It's 13 Lives. It's a good movie. And I don't know. I would also say also landing at an 86, probably a good case for when people are like, yeah, everybody just likes everything at festivals is Bodies, Bodies, Bodies, Bodies, Bodies, a movie that I know, maybe nobody that likes. Oh, I know, I know almost everybody I know who saw Bodies, Bodies, Bodies, really liked it. That's wild to me, because, like, that movie is neither scary nor funny, nor having all that smart to say about the thing that it wants to be talking about and is saved and made watchable purely by Rachel Sennett's performance. My generally mixed reaction to that movie is the most negative reaction among the people who I talk to regularly.

I see a lot of people really, really like bodies. I had very little positive to say about it. You are, like, the most negative person on that movie in my life. It's, like, just not, it's not saying anything unique. I'm just saying, like, in terms of, like, but, like, that's perception for you, right? Like, that's perception for you. But anyway, I want to, looking at, like, stuff towards the bottom of the list and, like, people were too mean to that. I'm trying to think, I'm trying to pick, like, something towards the bottom that, like, okay, we've both talked about not really loving Empire of Light, but it's better than a 45%.

Rotten Tomatoes. Like, I know you can't, like, craft a Rotten Tomato Score to, like, fit it exactly. Right. But, like, I'm like... Well, we've talked about it. We've talked about movies that end up in, like, the 60s or low 70s, where it's like, actually, if you look at the general consensus of it, it seems more mixed than what the Rotten Tomato score is. I bet that that is the same thing, just leaning towards the negative. Like, where the Rotten Tomato score looks harsher than what a lot of people.

people's opinions up. Well, and this is why you can't, like, nickel and dime the rotten tomatoes. Because, like, Death on the Nile, a movie that I don't know a single person who liked is a 62 on there. And Babylon is a 55. And, like, Babylon is your classic love it or hate it movie, right? I know people on, I've seen people on both sides of that spectrum. I'm leaning more towards the love it than the hate it. I definitely, the more I think about it, the more I'm like, yeah, there's some, like, stuff I don't love in it.

But mostly the stuff that I love is great. And I fucking love that movie. And I'm not surprised at a 55. But, like, Death on the Nile being completely, like, underwhelming in every way at a 62. It's just, you know what I mean? Like, that's, that's, this is why you can't take on T2 seriously. White noise, also at a 62. White noise, I know nobody ready to go to bat for that movie.

Right. The Whale 65. Like, I know there were people at festivals who were, like, giving the whale positive views, but it was nobody that I know, you know what I mean? So that's just how this goes. But anyway, if you have picked a lot of movies in that 50-point range, kudos to you and enjoy, I think award season is going to end up continuing to go well for you. If you picked Santo Mare or Fire of Love, or Pinocchio, or Top Gun Maverick,

or afters, you know what I mean? Like, award season is going to be kind to all of those movies going forward. So you're on a good momentum swing right now. Congratulations. This is when my points begin to show up. Starting next week, we're going to finally get into the realm of winners points. We've got the Golden Globe Awards coming up on Tuesday. Tuesday, why you ask?

Because people are trying to read into that. It's just like, oh, Golden Globes are Tuesday because they're being punished for being bad. And it's like, no, Golden Globes are on Tuesday because movie awards are terrified of of football. And there is a college football championship on Monday, and there is NFL football on Sunday with major playoff implications. So, like, that is why. Also, these decisions are usually made a year or two in advance. And, like, ABC, it's ABC, right? Picked up the Globes last minute. So, oh, is it not still on NBC? Is it now on ABC? I thought it was ABC, but maybe I am misremembering, but, like, the contract for the Golden Globe ceremony on whatever network,

they're on. They bought a one-year contract to show the show, and they did it, like, tour, they did it, you know, in the back half of 2021 that they picked it up. So it's, no, it's still on NBC. It's not well-planned. Yeah. It's definitely still on NBC, and also streaming on Peacock. But, yeah, if you are under the impression that the Golden Globes got moved to Tuesday as a slap on the wrist, like that is not the case. Big points available. The best Picture winners will each get 35 points. All the other winners will get 25 points. Song and score get 15 points because, you know, their song and score.

But anyway, points to be had. Very exciting. What's going to be the weirdest movie to get 25 points out of the Golden Globes this year? Like, what's going to be the one that wins one, like, Rando category? And you're like, huh. Apparently, people think that Anadamus is winning for blonde. I think that would be wild. Who would she have to beat, to beat out Lydia Tar?

Like, no. Yeah. That's, that's, I know people anticipate the Golden Globes to be on one to an extreme degree, but like, that's mostly in the TV categories. Apparently, Anadarmus is getting out there and campaigning heavily. I'm sure she is. But, like, she wouldn't be the first person to hit the campaign trail running and then run into the brick wall of an actually, you know, well-regarded. I think if that is the case and if it's actually working, I think she's probably more likely to get that fifth best actress slot than she is to win the Globe, you know?

Sure. The Globe that the one acting prize, Kate Blanchard is not going to have to compete with Michelle Yo for it. Yeah. Actually, the weirdest one that stands a good chance to get 25 points is where the Croddads sing. Like, I could definitely see the Taylor Swift song. Yeah, Taylor Swift's Golden Globe. Like, it's either probably, I would guess it's either. they're going to be, well, Lady Gaga, obviously, but if it's not Lady Gaga, I think it's

going to be Taylor Swift for Crawdads or Natu Natu from RR, is my guess. That wouldn't be that weird, though, because, like... It wouldn't be. Let's get Natu Natu on the Oscar ceremony. I know that we're... I think it's going to happen. I don't. I genuinely do think it's going to happen.

But, yeah, I don't, I am not on board with all the, with everything people say about that movie. However, Natu Natu is innocent and should be on the Oscar telecast. it's whatever it's a longer conversation about RRR but it's funny it's it's curious to me that you like not too not too but not the rest of the movie since the rest of the movie has major not too not too energy I think like I think that also has major brave heart energy yeah you keep saying that I see it I see what you mean but and that movie like I like but don't like love but whatever we'll give plenty of

chances to talk about RRR in the rest of the Oscar conversation for now we're are going to take you back to your regularly scheduled seeking of leisure. But before we do, I'm just going to remind you that you can go to moviegame.vulcher.com. And from there, click a link to the landing page where you can get the complete standings and point values and peruse where your team stands on the leaderboard. Just do a little control F search and you can find your team name. And see how it's going, man. I'm in the top 400, 500, I think, right now. So things are going okay for me, I think.

Lurking on those vulture staffers that are ahead of me. I'm coming to get you all of y'all. But yes, anyway, so see you next week when we'll be talking about the Golden Globe results. Otherwise, back to Helen Mirren. Back to the leisure. Oh, my God, leisure Seeker 2, back to the leisure. Should happen. Quickly, while there's still time.

Get Helen and Donald back on that bus. Open a window on the Winnebago. Listen, they could, if you had to. a leisure seeker to that was just like Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland, Winnebagoing through heaven? I'm not complaining. I'm not complaining, is what I'm saying. Visiting all the people they fucked

in their youth. My ticket is already purchased. All right. Let's get back to it. Okay. Make sure the safety's off before you start shooting them, sweetheart. Already done it, it's an interesting little movie. It's a

curiosity for sure. It's not something that I would recommend people like rush out and go see. For something that was a punchline, it is at least a functioning movie, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I've never seen any of this guy's other Italian movies. I saw that he had directed a movie called Like Crazy, but it's not that one. It's not the Italian like crazy.

Right, right, right, right. All right, let's talk about this Golden Globe nomination, though, because as we said, this is why we're talking about this. Big surprise on Golden Globe nomination. morning. This gets nominated. It's my finest moment as an awards person. It's my best prediction I've ever made. I'm so proud of it. Also, the year that I called the SAG ensemble nominations, I think, five for five. What year was that? 2016, it was the year of hidden figures, I remember. And it was not the five that everybody was predicting. Wait, no, I want

to go and find that. Because La La La Land didn't get that nomination, right? Yes. And I was like, they're not going to get that nomination. It's just the two of, it's like the two of them and hardly anybody else. Like, it's not going to happen. Put some respect on Rosemary DeWitt's name. Listen, nobody puts more respect on Rosemary DeWitt's name than I do. Take it go. No, it was Hidden Figures, Fences. Manchester. Oh, that's what it was. I didn't call Captain Fantastic, but nobody did. But I called Hidden Figures, Fences, Manchester by the Sea, Moonlight. And then I called it it wasn't going to be La La Land. And everybody's like, you're Forgeting La La Land, idiot. And I was just like, it's not going to get out.

Okay. And I was vindicated by that. That Captain Fantastic Ensemble nomination definitely cemented Vigo Mortensen's nomination. Oh, 100%. Because as soon as that happened, everybody was like, yeah, you said it. Oh, and look who's in that movie, George. Oh, no, sorry, that's not Christian McKin. It's George McKay.

George McKay. That cast is kind of stacked, though, really, when you look at it, where it's Vigo, Catherine Hahn, George McKay. Franklin Jell's in that movie, Missy Piles in that movie, Steve Sondon's in that movie. Interesting. Fegas penis. Well, I mean, he shows up in everything, so yes. But anyway, so the other nominees opposite Helen Mirren at that Golden Globes, that was the year that Sershra Ronan won for Lady Bird.

I always forget that she won because I'm like, I, that should be more sort of emblazoned in my mind, and I don't think enough time has passed for it to really, like, be enshrined in my head. I think the persisting narrative is that she just never got anything for that role. Right. I also think you don't remember her winning because her speech was so boring. Well, it was very brief. She was very happy and very excited, but it was very brief. And yes, it wasn't super notable.

She does forget to thank Lori Metcalf. And it's one of those things where she doesn't say her name. And then the camera cuts to Lori Metcalf right at the end. And you're just like, okay. Like, you know, she just forgot. It's not like it was a slight or anything. Other nominees were Margot Robbie for Itanya, who goes on to get an Oscar nomination, Judy Dench for Victoria and Abdul, who came very close to getting an Oscar nomination,

Emma Stone for Battle of the Sexes, and then Helen Mirren. And so I was like, if not Helen Mirren, like, I was trying to remember, like, who was being predicted for that five. because you look at the other also rams. And I put down Salma Hyac and Beatrice at dinner, even though I believe that is a drama, but so's Battle of the Sexes. I think they pushed it for comedy. I think they pushed it for comedy.

And they'll do that, like I said, like Emma Stone, and certainly the Emma Stone parts of Battle of the Sexes are not a comedy. I get where, like, the Steve Carell buffoonery or whatever, you could say that's a comedy, but, like, that movie's a drama. I put down Regina Hall for Girls' Trip because, like, Tiffany Haddish was getting awards buzz. And, like, if that movie, if a movie like that is going to show up anywhere, it would be the Golden Globes musical or comedy. And she would, Regina Hall, would be the de facto lead of that movie, even though it is as close to a true ensemble as you can get. But, like, she's got a little bit more lead energy in that movie.

Aubrey Plaza and Ingrid Goes West, even though that was a very divisive movie. And her performance, I think, was especially divisive. This was before everybody decided they were all in love with Aubrey Plaza. this was when the jury was a little bit more out on her. And I put down Reese Witherspoon for Home Again because that's a Golden Globe nomination right there. I feel like there were people probably... That seems the most likely for the ones that you've named

that people were probably widely predicting. Because I feel like the widely predicted fifth slot here was probably a more mainstream comedy. But I went through all of the movies of 2017 and I couldn't find more... Like Amy Schumer and Trainwreck, but everybody hated that movie. Or not trying to, not snatched. Amy Schumer and snatched, but everybody hated that movie.

Is this the year of I Feel Pretty or is I Feel Pretty Afterwards? I think it's afterwards. Okay. But like nobody was predicting like Zendaya for the greatest showman or Michelle Williams for the greatest showman. No, I don't think so. Plus like calling either one of them a lead would have been a real stretch, even though. And the Globes are known to stretch. I mean, Globes has done that with comedy, though.

I was also thinking Zoe Kazan for the big sick, but that would also be a real stretch because she is in a coma for half of that movie. But yeah, I wasn't quite sure where people would have maybe been predicting other nominations for that. But anyway, this is probably a big part of the reason why Marin is such a smart prediction, because Mirren has this massive Globes history, definitely sat down for a, you know, a junk it with the HFPA for this movie, one million percent. Yeah.

Well, they also love her, and we'll get into that in a second. I want to see if I can find... When I Google Golden Globes' 2018 predictions, I bet you that'll give me just winner predictions. Yeah. And I want nomination predictions. It's lost to the SEO. Truly, like, those things...

And, like, everybody writes those... Okay, 28... Vanity Fair. Good friends at Vanity Fair. shout out to Katie, who wrote this thing? Joanna Robinson, Katie, Rich, Hillary Bussis, Richard Lawson, and Mike Hogan. Not a bad five-person lineup. Okay.

So they predicted Best Actress Motion Picture Comedy. Oh, okay. So they predicted Dench, Robbie, Ronan, Stone, and then they predicted Emma Watson for Beauty and the Beast, which is not a bad prediction. That's what it was,

and everyone was like, oh, no. Yeah. So glad that that didn't have it. Yeah, people were predicting that. There we go. Okay. All right. That makes sense.

This is a better nomination than that would have been. It is a better nomination. There are nominations that would have been better than that. I would have preferred almost all of those others. Salma Hayek, Regina Hall, Aubrey Plaza, Rees Witherspoon. I would have preferred all of those to this one. The actress is not a comedy. No, it's not.

But again, like I said, neither is Battle of Sex. And Helen Mirren isn't the one I would boot. The one I boot is, sorry Dame Judy. especially because Victoria and Abdul in the way that that movie tried to be a comedy I would boot Judy but I would boot Helen too I didn't hate the leisure seeker but like If I'm only booting one though

Sure okay okay fine Helen Mirren is a 16 time Golden Globe nominee Half of those are for television And half of those are for film I want to go through the television ones first and then we'll have you guessed the film once. But how many are for Prime Suspect?

Only one. She's got a bunch of Emmy nominations for Prime Suspect, but she only has one Golden Globe. Prime Suspect, the final act. So, like, they didn't start nominating her for Prime Suspect until well after the fact. The Emmys nominated her all the time. Her very first Golden Globe nomination is for,

most of these are for actress in a miniseries or motion picture made for television. It was a movie called Losing Chase. Do you remember that movie at all? It was an HBO movie directed by Kevin. Bacon, where... Oh, yes, now I remember. Helen Mirren and Bo Bridges are married.

Helen Mirren is sort of going through a crisis, and Kira Sedgwick, I think maybe gets hired to help her or whatever, and she and Kira Sedgwick have, like, a thing. They, like, fall for each other. And I believe it was an HBO movie. So Mirren gets nominated for that. She then is next nominated for the television movie, The Passion of Ein Rand, where she plays Ayn Rand, which I remember being like a big Yeah, and she got Emmy nominated for that as well.

Peter Fonda's in that movie. And I don't, I think it's one of those like a complicated woman. Like I don't think it's like a hagiography of Ein Rand. And she has this very severe haircut in it. But like Julie Delpy's in this movie. Peter Fonda, like I said, it's never saw it. But I remember it being a thing throughout award season. She was nominated for a TNT TV movie called Door to Door,

where William H. Macy plays a door-to-door salesman who has cerebral palsy, and it's this very sort of like uplifting kind of a movie, I believe. Actually, I've never seen that movie, so I don't know. She maybe plays his wife or somebody he goes to door-to-door. It was a lead performance. She was nominated for the 2003, the Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, which I think was a showtime. either movie or miniseries

Prime Suspect the Final Act Elizabeth I was the year where she's got three nominations in one year for the year she won for the Queen the year she won the Globe and the Oscar for the Queen she was nominated for that for Elizabeth the First and for Prime Suspect all three of those

I believe in the same year then movie movie she's nominated for Phil Spice Vector for 2013 as her performance opposite, Al Pacino. And then most recently, her most recent nomination was a few years ago for the HBO. I believe it was miniseries Catherine the Great, where she played, the titular Catherine the Great.

So those are her eight television nominations for the Globes. She has eight nominations for films. Can you name them? I thought that there would be more. Obviously, Leisure Secret. Yes. The Queen. Yes.

Gossford Park. Yes. A hundred foot journey. Yes. Last station. Last station, yes. What other Oscar nomination? You're missing three.

Forgetting. So, I don't think she was nominated for one for film before Gosford Park. you're correct so they're all going to be after you're correct she was not nominated for the madness of king george which was her first oscar nomination oh hitchcock so i have two more hitchcock is correct trumbo yes trumbo you're missing one what's the last one and i feel like it might be obvious am i missing an oscar nomination nope you're not i think she only has what four oscar nominations right right right Yeah. But she won on her second.

She went on her third. Third? Wait. Madness of King George, Gossford Park. Oh, Madness of King George. Is that the Golden Globe nomination I'm missing? No. I forgot about that nomination.

What? Madness of King George. Yeah, no. No, Gosser Park was her first Golden Globe nomination. So Madison and King George was not a nomination. Wait, does she only have three Oscar nominations? No, last station. No, that's four because last station.

Yeah, yeah. Anyway, this is not an Oscar nomination. I fully wipe that one from my brain. This is Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy. Yeah, that's what I was figuring. This has got to be one of the four. It's not Red because she's supporting in that movie. She was not nominated for Red.

But it did get a Globe Best Picture nomination. Christ. I can give you the year if you want. I'll take the year. 2003. Okay. So this is after God. Oh, it's Calendar Girls.

It's calendar girls. I had calendar girls at the top. Yeah. It's the classic Golden Globes, Britcom. Like, they love a movie like Calendar Girls. They love, who directed that movie? That was... Talk about some This Had Oscar Buzz titles,

Her Globe Comedy Nominations, Calendar Girls, The Leisure Seeker, and the Hundred Foot Journey. I mean, it's of a piece. I love those ones more than I love, like, the Hitchcock nomination. You know what I mean? Like, that was directed by Nigel Cole, who directed saving grace, the Brenda Blethen movie, who directed Maiden Dagenham, the Sally Hawkins movie. So, like, that's what, that's, that's the genre we're talking about.

The cast of The Calendar Girls also is, like, Helen Mirren, Julie Walters, Penelope Wilton, Linda Bassett, our beloved Nellie the Cook from The Hours is in that movie. Celia Imrey is in that. Karen Hines, it's just it's madlibs for older British ladies. I need to rewatch that movie. That movie's a fun time. Yeah, yeah. All right. So, yes, Golden Globe

Sensation, Helen Mirren, and she will be nominated again soon. Donald Sutherland also, I noted, famously never nominated for an Oscar, even though he was in movies like MASH and Ordinary People, which were like huge Oscar successes. He finally got an honorary Oscar in 2018. He's a nine-time Golden Globe nominee, but only three of them are for film, for MASH, for ordinary people, and he was nominated

in supporting actor for that movie Without Limits, which was one of the two Steve Prefontein movies that came out within like a year of each other. That was the Billy Crudeup one. And he did not ultimately get the Oscar nomination for that. But he's a big time, like the Golden Globes, one of the Golden Globes' tendencies, especially in the 90s and the aughts, where they have the big combined, they've just since, like, spread it out or separated it, but the big combined supporting actor in all of television, comedies, dramas, TV movies, miniseries. Chaos. And the people who would end up dominating those, you'd have, like, one or two people from

series, and then the people who would dominate and would usually win would be prestige. actors in miniseries and TV movies. So, like, you would get winners. I want to go through. And then they would not be nominated for Emmys. And sometimes they wouldn't be nominated for Emmys. But, all right, so supporting... All right, so starting in the 90s, you get people like Maximilian Shell for the HBO

movie Stalin, Donald Sutherland won for the HBO movie Citizen X, Ian McKellen for Resputin, George C. Scott for 12 Angry Men, Gregory Peck for. Moby Dick. Peter Fonda won for the Passion of Einrand. Stanley Tucci for conspiracy. Donald Sutherland won again for the HBO movie Path to War, which was the one about Lyndon Johnson played by Michael Gambon. Paul Newman for Empire Falls. We talked about Empire Falls somewhat recently on this. Jeremy Irons for Elizabeth I. Tom Wilkinson for John Adams. And then if you go into the actresses, you get Joan Plowright for Stalin, Miranda Richardson for a movie called Fatherland, Shirley Knight for my beloved indictment, the McMartin trial, Fay

Dunaway for Gia, Vanessa Redgrave for if these walls could talk to, Angelica Houston for Iron Jod Angels. Do you remember, Iron Jod Angels? It was about suffrage. It was about the suffragettes, Emily Blunt for Gideon's daughter, Samantha Morton for Longford. That was my era of being really good at predicting the Golden Globes winners, because that was a tendency that came through every year. I could always predict that it's supporting TV awards, because it's like, oh, who's the most, like, the most respected actor in a very, it doesn't have to be widely watched TV movie or miniseries. And it's always going to beat... Almost more ideal if it's not wide... And it's always going to beat, like, David Hyde Pierce for Frasier or something like that.

You know what I mean? Even though, like, that's your Emmy favorite. Clothes and Globes are weird. That's why I like them. What else can we talk about about this? Movies for Grown Up nominee as Best Grown Up Love Story. Shockingly not for more... I was like, this is probably going to have, like, four movie for grown-up nomination.

A real thin field that year. Well, and it's also I feel like we've maybe talked about this lineup before Because it is deranged Yes Leisure Seeker is nominated opposite Our Souls at Night The Netflix Robert Redford Jane Fonda movie That my mother absolutely loves

Your mother and I were the only two people Who ever watched that movie I know I was like I've talked to literally no other people Except for a friend and former guest Danita Steinberg who have seen that movie Yeah Breathe, the Andrew Garfield Breed, directed by Andy.

Wait, what's the grown-up love story in Breathe? Because Andrew Garfield is definitely not AARP-R-P-H. Claire Foy is his wife. Also not AARPH. Also not AARP-A-A-R-P. But it's like this is the only people who watch this movie besides me. See, this is where the M-4-Gs get really squishy, though, is sometimes their nominations are best,

best whatever achievement by people, actors who are in our 50-plus age range. And sometimes it's best achievement in a movie that is watched by people in our 50-plus age range. And you kind of can't really predict which way they're going to go. And that's why sometimes you get Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy as their best grown-up love story. And then the winner is even more so that the greatest showman. Who could forget the Sterling Romance? Listen, I am as big of a greatest showman apologist as maybe not the biggest, because there are fans of that movie. I am a pretty decent apologist for The Greatest Showman, where I enjoy a lot of that movie, even though I don't think it's that good.

The romance between Hugh Jackman and Michelle Williams in that movie is not among that film's virtues. Well, here's the thing. They could be even less AARP and giving it for the romance between Sack Ephra and Zendaya. Oh, I didn't even think about that. I mean, Zach Efron is probably close to twice her age when they filmed that movie. It could also be a best-in-a-generational story. He's like 40, and she's like 20. He's not 40.

Zach Efron is secretly almost 40. I'm 40. He's not, well, I'm a little bit older than 40 at this point. Zach Ephron is 35. Let's not, let's, he's going through enough. I'm 35, too. He's going through enough. Don't tack on that extra five years.

I just remember the Alaska read of detox when everyone thinks that Zach Efron is so hot. I'm like, unfortunately, I'm unable to have sex with you because most of your parts are under 18 years of age. Zach Efron, all right, here's where the Zach Ephron situation is going to really come to a head. I am so excited for this Sean Durkin movie. And he's playing Kevin Von Erick, the sort of the Von Erich. the sort of the von eric wrestling family if you follow wrestling the cast of this damn movie especially if you followed wrestling in the 1990s or even 1980s like the curse of the von eric family is like a thing that you probably have heard of where like so many of the people in that

family died before their time but it's zach aphron the brothers are played by zach effron harris dickinson jeremy allen white from the bear uh and then lily james is also in this movie mora tyranny and holt mackalini i imagine are playing the It is a tremendous cast and Sean Durkin has yet to miss and still I keep begging him to make a horror movie because I think he would make the best horror movie ever but he's not making it but he's making these movies that have you can tell where he's going to bring a little bit of that the nest Martha Marcy like this family is haunted this family is cursed and I could see him bringing that into the movie in a way that feels. feels a little, you know, genre-bendie. And I'm so excited for it. This is not going to be just a regular biopic. And it's...

More a tyranny Oscar campaign, LFG. Oh, boy. Yeah. Really, really, really, really excited for that one. It's called the Iron Quacken. So it's very much going to be a Sean Durkin movie. So I pump the brakes in terms of Oscar talk for this movie. Oh, I agree with that.

I'm just excited to see it. And I'm excited to see it. what we could get out of Zach Efron, whose career has gotten to a weird point. And I would, he's somebody I kind of root for ever since Hairspray. I feel like I kind of root for that guy. I mean, Jude Law is obviously a very different actor, but that Sean Durkin got that Jude Law performance out of him in the nest. It makes me very, I feel like he knows exactly what to do with Zach Efron.

I think that's right. I think that's right. So that's exciting. how did we get on that? Oh, right, the AARP M4Gs. Yeah, so Greatest Showman beat out the Leisure Seeker there. I think that's a good nomination for the Leisure Seeker. That's what the M4Gs are kind of there for is a nomination like that. That's the only other really domestic nomination that that movie got. Everything else were like Italian awards. And I wonder what the reception of it was like at Venice among the like Italian press, because it is an Italian. and director sort of making his English language debut. Well, I mean, I remember absolutely no word from the leisure seeker at that Venice, so I can't really speak to it. But I did kind of raise an eyebrow when I, you know, in preparing for this episode, remembered

it was in competition. I'd remembered it as being out of competition at Venice, but being in competition. But then, like, some of the other things that were in competition at this. Venice, like Suburicon, which we've done an episode on. Oh, we sure have. That is a horrible movie. Downsizing, which we haven't done an episode on. Right?

Have we done? No, we did an episode on that. Yeah, we did an episode of downsizing, yeah. Also not a good movie. Golden Lion that year was Shape of Water on its road to the Oscar. A neck thenning head of the jury. Oh, that's a good jury then. That's a good Venice competition though

Even among like yes downsizing yes suburbic comment like first Reformed ex Libris the Frederick Wiseman movie X Libris the New York Public Library a movie that everybody should watch now that Eric Adams is trying to gut the funding for the New York public library system

Everybody get out there and watch X Libris and get radicalized Lean on Pete the Andrew Hay movie that I actually really liked mother of course Aronovsky another movie that we've done on this podcast. Three Billboards, which obviously has a big

Oscar trajectory that year. So, yeah, that's an interesting, I feel like people got into Fox Trot. That movie, Fox Trot. I feel like that was a big sort of... Fox Trot's a good movie. I had never seen it.

What's it about? The Fox Trot? It's somewhat of a war movie a little bit, but it's also like grieving at home to... My problem with that movie is it opens with a guy basically beating his dog um but that i forget if it made it to it got um the silver lion so it got second place at this venice and like people really loved it at the time i forget if it missed

the international feature nomination or not but i feel like it was the one that people were like why wasn't this nominated it was not nominated for usker because i have not seen it um also that uh charlotte Rampling movie Hannah, which is about, I would imagine, a woman named Hannah. I believe also another dementia story. Oh, gosh. Okay. Sometimes I just love looking at festival juries when there's movies like this in lineups that I'm like, what did Annette Benning think while she was sitting there watching?

What did Annette Benning think of Mother? It's the first thing I'm going to ask her if I ever get to meet her in person. It's like, you were on the Venice jury when Mother was in competition. What did you think of that movie? I would love to hear it. I bet you she would give you... What was your day like when you had to watch Mother and ex-Librous back to back? Or like, what if Mother and like First Reformed were on the same day?

Like, your brain would just be broken, absolutely broken. That's very exciting. You went out and immediately gave to, I don't know, some climate change. Right. So I knew that we were going to, because the awards conversation about this movie is fairly limited to just a couple of things. it didn't really ever have. After that Golden Globe nomination, that was sort of where its trajectory kind of ended.

So I did decide that this was going to be a week for us to have a game, and I realized we have not done Alter Egos in a while, and I miss it. And so I want to do Alter Egos this week. The theme of which will be, Alter Egos is the game where I give Chris the name of three characters from either movies or TV. he has to then figure out who played those three characters and then what other movie those three actors were all in together.

That's the game of alter egos. The answers to all of these are going to be movies that much like the Leisure Seeker got one and only one Golden Globe nomination. So these are one-time Golden Globe nominees. They are from the 90s, the aughts, and the teens. Nothing earlier than the 90s, all right? And any questions? No.

All right. To begin, your first one is Janet Weiss, Judy Benjamin, and Lionel Logue. Janet Weiss is Susan. Lionel Logue, I definitely know. What was the middle name? Judy Benjamin. Judy Benjamin. Also sounds somewhat familiar.

Is this stepmom? It's not stepmom, even though that might have been a one-time. No, maybe a score nominee for step-mom, but Susan was definitely nominated for that. Anyway, no, not step-mom. Judy Benjamin, that name should help unlock that for you. Benjamin Button. Benjamin. Judy Benjamin.

Oh. So Benjamin is not a first name, but a last name. Right, I was joking. Judith. This movie with a Judy. Go the other way. I know. Okay, so movie with last name, Benjamin.

Struggling. Perhaps in a military context. Um, this is bad. Maybe not like a highly ranked military context, but like a lower military rank. Private Benjamin. Oh, this is the Bangor Sisters. Yes. It is, you're talking about Goldie Hawn.

Goldie Hawn. Lionel Logue is Jeffrey Rush in the King's speech. Yes. Yes. All right. Next one. Clary Starling, India Stoker, and Bruce Wayne. Um, uh,

Clary Starling is Jody Foster. Um, Stoker is Mia Vasikovska. This is, oh boy. Um, where were they in together?

What was the third name? Uh, Bruce Wayne. A little, a little someone called Bruce Wayne. Have you heard of them? So few people who have played, Bruce Wayne. Um, oh, interesting.

Maybe Clarice is someone else? Uh, no. It's, what were they in together? Unless Lydia Stoker is Nicole Kidman, but I definitely can't think of a Kidman, Jodi Foster movie. India Stoker, not Lydia Stoker. India Stoker.

Um, um, India Tar. Um, Mia and Jody Foster were in, who was nominated for this, or what was it nominated for? It was nominated for, I believe, actress in a musical or comedy. Oh, that's weird. So Jody Foster probably nominated for a comedy that would have,

Mia Vosikovska in it? Unless it's Mia that was nominated. I am, we haven't played this game in a while and I'm bombing it. I'm going to need another hint. I'm sorry. Okay. You're wrong in your assumption about the first one. So it's not Jody Foster.

Yeah. Okay, so Mia was either with Christian Bale or Michael Keith. or not Val Kilmer, possibly George Clooney, and there's also R-Paths, but this is a comedy. It's a comedy, but it's not really like a broad comedy. It's an artsy comedy. Okay. You love this movie. I do.

Yeah. Okay, go back to the front. Go back to the beginning. Clarice Starling So if it's not who you thought it was If it's not Jody It's whoever played Clarice On Hannibal

Oh no, it's Julian Moore Duh, I'm forgetting Hannibal the movie And I was thinking Hannibal the show And I was like, I don't know Who Played that Okay, so Julianne Moore, me Oh, it's Julianne for Maps to the Stars

Yes, yes, it's Mass to the Stars I thought you would get that one kind of right away Okay Naps to the Stars would be a fun episode We should probably do it. I hate that movie. Next one. I defend it.

Oh, I know. You very much enjoy it. A lot of people do. Jimmy Hoffa, Carolyn Burnham, and Captain Georg von Trapp. Okay, so, Georg von Trapp is Plummer. What was the middle name again? Catherine Burnham. Carolyn Burnham.

Carolyn Burnham. And the first one was what? Jimmy Hoffa. Jimmy Hoffa. So that is. is either Nicholson or Pacino. With Christopher Plummer, Carolyn Burnham, Burnham, Burnham is,

oh, I know this. The woman who played Carolyn Burnham was Oscar nominated for playing Carolyn Burnham. And nearly one. Oh, I hate that. Huh? Nearly one for playing that role. I know.

Oh, I hate that. I can't get that and I can get the other two. Okay, so Christopher Plummer and... If you got it based on just the two names that you know, I would tip my hat to you. Oh, okay. I would tip my hat to you. Oh, are you doing a top hat to me? Perhaps a fedora.

I would tip my fedora to you. Okay. I can't tell if you're trying to get me to get the Carolyn Burnham movie or the movie that this is. Nope. The movie that this is. Who are the actors who you've already named? Pacino or Nicholson and Christopher Plummer. Right.

And perhaps fourth build would be the hat that one of them wore, which you talked about quite extensively on the podcast episode that we did about this movie. oh okay when have we talked about Nicholson the bucket list it's not the bucket list when have we talked about Pacino oh Danny Collins this is Danny Collins this is Danny Collins yes this is Danny Collins you talked about that goddamn Christopher Plummer Fedora oh Carolyn Burnham is American Beauty is American Beauty yes all right next one goddamn it the witch I'm so rusty at this game the witch Thaddeus Stevens and Bobby Riggs

Bobby Riggs is Steve Karell. The Witch, I am guessing, is Meryl Streep for Into the Woods. They were both in... What was the middle name? Thaddeus Stevens. Oh, that's someone in Lincoln. The witch could be someone different than Meryl. Thaddeus Stevens is Spader?

Not Spader. Tommy Lee Jones? Tommy Lee Jones. Hope Springs. Hope Springs. You got it. Merrill, Tommy Lee Jones, and Steve Carell. All right.

Next one. Eduardo Savarin, General Zod, and Marmee March. Laura Dern for Marmy March. Or Susan. General Zod. is Michael Shannon? Or Terrence Stamp? Terence Stamp and Susan were in a movie together.

The first name was Severin? Eduardo Savarin. Savarin. That's... Is that Andrew Garfield? No? What's that name? Andrew Garfield,

Susan. Wait, what was the one that I was saying was Susan with the name? Marmy March. Oh, okay. Andrew Garfield or Laura Linney, or not Laura Linnie, Lordearn. Laura Lennie would be a good Marmee March. Yeah, I agree. Eduardo Savarin, General Zod, Marmee March.

99 homes. 99 homes. Walk us through it. Michael Shannon and Andrew Garfield and Laura Dern And they are in 99 homes Nominated for Michael Shannon almost an Oscar nominee It is so interesting that like he didn't get nominated for that movie That he was showing up throughout the whole season

And his two Oscar nominations are for movies that he really kind of didn't Yep yep yep yep I think so too All right next three Chippetto Sally Albright and Captain Amazing Tom Hanks is Jepetto. Sally Albright is a name that I know. And Captain Amazing. I would not linger on Captain Amazing.

I had to throw in Captain Amazing because this person did not have a whole lot of recognizable character names. Is this Larry Crown? It's not Larry Crown. Sally Albright. That's not Mary. that would also mean this would have to be the Post and the Post definitely had more than one Globe nomination Tom Hanks, though

Yeah, I'm not going to linger on Captain Amazing What was the Tom Hanks character name? Jepetto Jepetto Fuck you Jepetto, Sally Albright Captain Amazing Sally Albright

I know this Sally Can I get a hint for who Captain Amazing is maybe? Sure Captain Amazing is a character in an ensemble superhero comedy that was kind of

was overlooked but I think is an interesting curiosity from 1990 Mystery Men? Yes Oh okay That's like Ben Stiller, Hank Azaria Who else is in that? Okay, but that

at least gives me kind of the tenor of who we're talking about. I promise you you're going to have better luck if you just linger on that second name for a little bit longer. Sally Albright. It's someone noteworthy like a Julia Roberts or like maybe not quite a

Merrill, but Sally Albright. Sally Albright. Oh, it's Sally Field? No. Sally is a lead character name, or like a titular character. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Perhaps with another titular character in the same title. Sally and Hooch. Sally and Louise. Something in Sally. Why am I not getting this? Something, something, something, something Sally. oh man i feel so stupid um it's a great legendary movie should have been an oscar winner for

original screenplay um oh when harry met sally it's you've got mail it's you've got mail damn it i literally watched that movie two days ago uh captain amazing is of course great canier in uh mystery met yes okay got it all right next one Clyde Barrow Emily Cooper and Hobie Doyle Clyde Barrow is Warren Beatty? Yes. Is this rules don't

apply? It is rules don't apply. Who's Emily Cooper? One of the worst movies I've ever seen in the theater. Yeah, who's Emily Cooper? Would you guess? Lily Jane. No. Lily. Emily and Paris. Emily and Paris. Lily Collins. Yes. Lily Collins. Yes.

Lily Collins. Danny Collins. Hobie Doyle is, of course, my beloved Alden-Earon-Rick. in Hail Caesar. A movie that I wanted to watch... Oh, Mary and Wright, you're ready for the comeback. I wanted to watch Hail Caesar immediately after I was done with Babylon. I wanted, like, the comedic... The comedic refresher after Babylon, a movie that I was quite taken with, actually.

All right. Don Weiner, Henry McHenry, and Joel Maisel. Did you say Joel Maisel? Joel Maisel. Don Wiener is Heather Matarazzo? Is that that character in Welcome to the Dollhouse? That's the character's name.

Oh, but she's also, that character shows up in other things, too. It's Greta Gerwig. This is Francis Ha. Yes, Francis Ha. Because she also plays Don Weiner and Weiner Dog. Who's Henry McHenry? That is Adam Driver. in Annette, Henry Henry.

Joel Mazels, of course, Michael Zegan, my beloved baby boy, Michael Zegan, and marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Tiny sweet angel baby boy, Michael Zegan. All right. Next ones. Nora Crank, Katie Heron, and Ned Ryerson. This is Freaky Friday.

Yes, walk us through it. Jamie Lee Curtis, as in Christmas with the Cranks, Katie Heron, obviously mean girls. Yes. Ned Ryerson is Stephen Tubalowski, his character in Groundhog Day, Freaky Friday, yes. All right. Next one. Count Olaf, Mary Sunshine, and Jenny Humphrey.

Mary Sunshine is Christine Boransky. Olaf is Josh Gad? Count Olaf. Not Olaf. Count Olaf. Okay. What's the third name? Jenny Humphrey.

Okay. What would Christine Baransky be third build Or second build for? She's probably not second build But I put her second in here Just because of prominence She's the second person you probably think of

It's got to be the Grinch It is how the Grinch stole Christmas Yeah Christine Bransky as Martha Mayhuvian I'm the only hot who I'll be Whoville Man know if their wife won't I will He's trying to get this Martha Mayhu Who

Whoville's sex is what I do Martha Mayhuvier On my mind Ever since watching the Matt Rogers Christmas special Which I will be watching several more times Throughout my lifetime It's so good All right next one

Nell Harper Lee Turbo and Rose Nyland Not Turbo Okay so Nell Harper Lee The two options are Catherine Keener And Sandra Bullock I'm gonna guess while you were sleeping It's not while you were sleeping

Turbo, though, means... There's that animated Turbo movie. What is he? He's like a super fast snail or something. Is that possibly Benjamin Bratt, and we're talking about miscongeniality? It's not Benjamin Brat. Okay.

Nell Harper Lee, Turbo, and Rose Nylund. I'm not sure I know Rose Nyland. Remember, I sometimes do TV people. I know. I mean, it's got to be Sandy. It is Sandy. I'll give you that it's Sandy. You should know...

Two weeks notice? You're going to get trumped out of homosexuality for not getting Rose Nileand. I'm sorry, but it's just true. Is it a show I've watched? I have to imagine it is. It's like a tent pole. It's like a... Oh, that's Golden Girls.

Yeah. Oh, this is the proposal. It's the proposal. Yes. Sandra Bullock is Harper Lee. Turbo is Ryan Reynolds. Rose Nileand is Betty White from the Golden Girls. All right.

Two more. Violet Newstead, Anna Delvey, and Lee Krasner. Okay. Anna Delvey is... What's her damn name? Lee Krasner... I know what that... What was the first one?

Violet Newstead. Violet. That is Lily Thompson in... Lily Tomlin, sorry, in 9 to 5. Yes. One of my favorite movies. Yes. This is Grandma.

Because the other one is Julia Garner. Anna Delvia is Julia Garner. Lee Krasner is Marsha Gay Hardin's character from Pollock. All right, last one. Marta Cabrera, Salvador Dali, and Mary Yankevickovic. Salvador Dali is Adrian Brody and Mary Yankevick

I'm guessing is whoever plays Weird Al's mom in the Weird Al movie, no idea who that is. What was the first name again? Marta Cabrera. Marta Cabrera, which is a name I do know from something semi-recent. Adrian Brody.

I can give you an alternate character for Mary Yankovic since you haven't seen that movie. Okay. Ivy Weston. Oh. Yeah, that's more familiar to me. Ivy. What does Weston do for you?

Celia Weston. No, but in terms of characters, it may be perhaps part of a family of Westons. Yeah. I just forget what that is. this brain turns my this game

turns my brain into pudding um Marta Cabrera is not a military thing no but like maybe not

investigative type of thing I can give you an alternate character for her to sure uh joy jo I oh that is

Amy Polar nope what do you think that's from oh i was thinking of inside out no oh no that's joy i believe just joy with a y j o i i wonder if i can find a better character name for the weston family is from a play turned into a film oh uh yes august osage county ivy is is Julianne Nicholson with Adrian Brody. What were they in together? You're going to have a hard time without the lead, I imagine,

because the lead is kind of the whole... It's probably the nominee. The whole show. Yes, definitely the nominee. Younger. Yeah. Not like... Oh, no.

Marta Cabrera is Anna da Armis in Knives Out This is blonde. He tricked me by making it a nominee from this year, you asshole. It's not a trick. It's legitimate. It's, yes, it is blonde. Ata Armas, Adrian Brody. The deeply not good, blonde.

Ivy Weston is Julianne Nicholson. It's blonde. Very good. That is the end of another fun and exciting alter egos. I hope our listeners were actively. Yelling at me the whole way because I bombed. All right. What else do you watch blonde yet?

No. I have not. I hope you never have to see it and it is not nominated because that movie is a piece of shit. Well, it's going to get not, it won't be nominated and then we will do it for our podcast. So that's what I will watch. Well, then give it that makeup nomination. Either way, I will be seeing it one time. I want to go back into my notes a little bit just because I do, I did write down a whole bunch. Starting the movie with It's Too Late, The opening notes, if it's too late, always make me think for a second that it's walk on by, which made me think of 45 years vibes a little bit.

All of that kind of genre of, like, music a little bit makes me think of 45 years when Charlotte Rampling is picking out the music that she wants for her party. That nice boy that Will met, I wrote down that whole quote. Also, your business partner, Richard, which I feel like is just like should be a euphemism in and of itself. Are you bringing your business partner, Richard? Love a movie with an O.J. Simpson joke in 2017. Gotta love it. Who does he think I am, O.J. Simpson?

That was very funny. Oh, the queer guy from the, I don't know if it was a resort or whatever. The guy who takes Helen Mirren on the little golf cart ride to find Donald Sutherland. And he's like, oh, an older Yankee type. I like them. It's just like, oh, it's like one of our people. The Trump thing. they do dance to Don't Leave Me This Way

in their fancy little hotel suite. That was fun. They do. Daniel Deadweiler. Can't believe that the sex scene isn't after dancing to Don't Leave Me This Way. I know. I know.

Who could resist? I wrote down this movie could have been called The Old Man in the Gun and the Old Man in the Gun could have been called the Leisure Seeker and like either would work very well. Oh, did you notice that the one woman from the old folks' home

that she tries to dump down Donald Tutherlandon is the checkout girl from Magic Mike double XL. I did. That was in my notes, but you beat me to it. Yeah. Dana Ivy is a harlot. Me and Bobby McGee. Yeah, that's my notes. That's all I got. What about you? Yeah, you sold my Magic Mike girl a joke. We should maybe do Double XL soon. Yeah, I came out positive on this movie. I think It has a 38 Rotten Tomatoes, which is just, like, clear.

That's a little too low. I think people not meeting this movie on its level. I think you can see the clearly worst version of this movie while you're watching this, and you're thankful that it's not that. Agreed. Yes. Do we want to go into the IMDB game and then wrap it on? Yeah, let's.

Every episode, we end with the IMDB game where we challenge each other with an actor or actress to try to guess the top four titles that IMDB says they are. most known for if any of those titles are television voice only performances or not acting credits will mention that up front after two wrong guesses we get the remaining titles release years is a clue and if that's not enough it just becomes a free-for-all of hints that is the iMdb game all right would you like to go first give first or guess first uh uh why if you know if i'm going to tank on this too might as well just keep it rolling from alter egos uh hit me all right so So I went the route of Helen Mirren's many, many Golden Globe nominations, one of which was, I said, for that TNT TV movie, Door to Door, the star of that movie, was William H. Macy. We've never done William H. Macy before. One television show, MM3 films.

Okay. One television show. Oh, shameless. Shameless, correct. Fargo Yes, correct Magnolia? Correct. Three for three? Are you going to go four for four?

Okay, Bill Macy. There's a lot of things it could be. Is it Pleasantville? It is not Pleasantville. Okay, no perfect score for me. Yeah. I mean, I could also guess Boogie Nights.

I feel like he's further down on the cast list for Boogie Nights than he is for Magnolia. The thing is, he's never the headliner. He's usually, like, third build and stuff. So I'm trying to think if there's something he is the headliner of. Which is why it's so ironic that his one Oscar nomination is in Best Supporting Actor for a movie in which he is the lead. Yeah.

It's really interesting. Hmm. I don't think it's going to be another. Well, is he in another Cohen's? He has to be. I'm just going to say Boogie Nights to get my ear. It is Boogie Nights. Oh, it's Boogie Nights.

Correct. Is he in another Coens movie, though? You're right that, like, it feels like he's got to be. I don't think he is. And if he is, it's got to be really small. That's really strange, considering... He's so perfect in Fargo? Yes, like, tremendously perfect.

Interesting, interesting. Interesting, interesting. I wonder why that is the case. Unless we are missing something, but, like, I'm scrolling through, and I don't see it. All right. Anyway, three for four, almost a perfect score. Very good. All right.

What do you got for me? You've totally made up for alter egos. Any kind of struggle you may have had there. Made up for it. So I went into the Venish jury for this movie. We talked about how you just want to know what people think about the individual movies that you're talking about.

I chose for you someone who was also on the most recent can jury, none other than our beloved Rebecca Hall. Oh, have we never done Rebecca Hall? I would pay money to know what Rebecca Hall thinks of Mother.

Oh, my gosh. Okay. Rebecca Hall... Oh, she's going to be an interesting one. because she's another one where it's like anything bigger that she did, she's a smaller role and anything lead that she did is a smaller movie. I don't think Resurrection is going to be there yet. I'm going to say the Nighthouse. Incorrect.

Damn. I almost feel like I'm flirting with going O for two to start, but I'm going to guess Iron Man 3. Also incorrect. You know she replaced Jessica Chastain. that? Yes. Which is like, why are either of those actresses even considering that nothing part?

Okay, so your years are, 2006. People like money. People like having their profiles raised. I too like having money. Yes. 2006, 2008, 2010, 2016. 2008 is Vicki Christina Barcelona? Yes.

What are the two later years? 10 and 16. 10 and 16. is 2006 starter for 10? No. My beloved starter for 10. 2010 and 2016. I feel like I'm missing a obvious one, right?

At least one obvious one? I... Hmm. What path do I want to lead you down? Is 2016 Professor Marston and the Wonder Women? No. Okay. I'm bombing this one.

I will say 2016 is the biggest role of these three. Okay. Biggest role, smallest movie. Okay. Was she nominated for things? Was she nominated for things for that movie? I think some small things. yeah definitely couldn't crack that field 2006 is it like something very British

it is British but not I would not follow that oh I mean no well is she British and I don't actually no I take that back I'm pretty sure she is playing an American in this movie okay I haven't seen it in a while there's a lot of British people involved I will say And maybe an Australian. Okay. Like a famous Australian? Yes. Like a Russell Crow kind of famous Australian?

Not Russell Crow, but, you know, that level. Nicole Kidman? No. Naomi Watts. Male Australian. Hugh Jackman. Yes. Hugh Jackman, 2000.

Oh, it's the prestige. I always forget that she's in the prestige. She's spectacular in this prestige. She is. That was one, that was, I think, the first thing a lot of people saw her. And I think, I feel like that and starter for 10 I saw, I can't remember which one I saw first. But it was those two together that I was like, oh, Rebecca Hall, very interesting. 2010, 2016.

Really surprised you haven't gotten 2010 based on what your preamble was for Rebecca Hall. That it's small roles in big movies and lead roles in small movies? Basically, but this is the quintessential why is Rebecca Hall? playing roles like this movie. 2010. So it's a blockbuster. Sure. Action thing? Action drama.

Oscar nominated. Oscar nominated in like a big category. In an acting category. Probably close to being a best picture. Very likely almost nominated for Best Picture. Okay. 2010. Oh, God.

It's the town. I'm so angry. The town. The town. totally misuses her. I get so mad at the town for many things, of course it's the town. It was essentially 11th place. People got

so mad that Winter's Bone beat out the town for that Best Picture nomination. Way better movie. I know. Winter's Bone... I know. Whoops. I know. The town's ass. Okay. 2016, it's a Sundance movie. Okay.

She... I mean, I could just give it to you. It's a titular character. Okay. Oh, God. Oh, she's great in this. I would have nominated her for actress for this. It's Christine. Yep. Christine. She's great. She rules in that movie. Can't believe I forgot it. Can't believe that in the prestige. I love her in both of those. All right. So now I have taken the mantle of Struggle Bus for a game in this episode. I deserve it. Okay. Thank you for kicking off the year with a great episode, Chris. This is not the first episode of the year. for listeners, but for us recording. We're recording this on New Year's Morn. All right. Thank you for listening, dear listeners.

That is our episode on The Leisure Seeker. If you would like more This Had Oscar Buzz. You can check out the Tumblr at this had oscarbuzz.tumlr.com. You should also follow our Twitter account at Had underscore Oscar underscore Buzz and our Instagram at This Had Oscar Buzz. Chris, where can the listeners find you and your stuff? You can find me on Twitter and Letterbox at Chris V File. That's F-E-I-L.

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That's all for this week, but we hope you'll be back next week for. more buzz your tender kiss don't leave me this way oh baby my heart is full of love and desire for you now come down

and do what you got to do you started this fire down in my song