This Had Oscar Buzz - 270 – Sister Act (Patreon Selects)

Episode Date: January 1, 2024

All January we’ll be doing a series we call Patreon Selects with episodes chosen by members of our sponsor-level tier on Patreon (and they’ll be sharing their Oscar origin stories too)! First up is 1992’s megasmash musical comedy Sister Act! Originally designed as a showcase for Bette Midler, the film became a starring vehicle for Whoopi … Continue reading "270 – Sister Act (Patreon Selects)"

Oh, oh, wrong house. No, the right house. We want to talk to Marilyn Hack, Merlin Hack and French. Dick Poop That's not going to chip my nails or annoy anybody You won't join the choir The choir? We're terrible

This is going to be hell Tell me about it We can rock this place I love it the words. You're going to go straight to hell. We could cut a damn hole. You're a pie in the earth.

She ain't known none. Hello and welcome to the This Had Oscar Buzz podcast, the only podcast that knows that there isn't a house password in addition to a gate password. 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 age. with an attitude. Chris File. Hello, Chris. He wave! Alma! Check your battery. It's maybe my favorite line in that whole movie. It's so good.

I want, no, here's the thing. I'm someone who, you know how it's like, people are like, you want to be this, but you are this, in terms of like any type of self-actualization thing of like, astrology, whatever. I want to be an Alma, but I am the Mary Wicks, Sister Mary. Sister Mary Lazarus.

Yes. Icon. We will talk about Mary Wicks because I want to get into it. Love her. You know how every once in a while I will text you and I'll be like Lois Smith and East of Eden or whatever and like seeing like an actress who we only know as an older woman because of our life experience and then see them in a younger role? I will flip actual shit if I when I, and I will at some point when I see Mary Wicks in a younger

role because like um or it's like when I watched uh she's younger I believe in her wiki profile photo let me pull that back up oh Mary no no she's a different nun in her wiki photo wait is that a nun or is she a cop driving a car oh my god where angels go trouble follows from 1968 Mary wicks hell yeah Mary wicks fuck I'm gonna watch that a legend in this so in mine i want to be uh kathy na jimmy in this movie but i believe i am probably you are too surly i'm instead uh the the nun who goes hail when they're doing the hail holy queen and i'm gonna yikes also a legend every one of these nuns a living legend well some of them I know. Well, we know at least a few. Living in our hearts, minds, and souls.

When we run down the cast, we'll do a little tribute to a couple of our faves because there's some, this had Oscar Buzz true faves in this cast, and I do love it. Um, what a great, what a great collection of ladies. This movie, this religious, but in a non-threatening way, movie that also, made me no longer believe in God because Wendy McKenna, when I discovered that she has a voice dub for her singing voice. Did you never catch on to that? I didn't know that as a child, but I found that out as an adult. It was kind of like discovering Santa Claus isn't real. It was one of those things where I never really like glommed onto it as a child, but like I've seen Sister Act through the course of my life probably like 20 times.

And so, like, at some point along the line, I was like, oh, right, this is a, ironically enough for a movie that has a CNC Music Factory song on the soundtrack, that this is a... Just a touch of love, baby, just a touch of love. This is a CNC Music Factory situation where we have a voice dub. Happy New Year, listeners. This episode drops right on New Year's Day, a perfect way... We are your hangover episode with what I would call a perfect hangover movie. Perfect hangover movie. A perfect watch it on cable movie. I've said before how when I was a kid, we taped Sister Act and House Sitter on the same VHS off of an HBO free preview weekend. And that... What a double feature. That VHS got a lot of use. I remember particularly my sister and I watching Sister Act a lot. I of course grew up Catholic. I went to Catholic school. Weirdly.

I've talked about this, how I went to Catholic school my entire educational career because I also went to a Jesuit college, although by the time you get to Jesuit college, it doesn't really feel like... Both of your sisters are nuns now. Yeah, I will say my one aunt is a former nun. Was a nun before I was born, was a nun. Sister Prajean, right, is your aunt. Yeah, Sister Helen Prejean from... Who I also, when I was in high school at my Catholic high school, went to go see speak

at the local college around here. Like, she was doing a speaking tour after Dead Man Walking came out. And so we went to go see her speak because... It was behind a pane of glass, and she's just holding a hand to the glass throughout her whole speech. My... Because when you go to Catholic High School, you take... And Catholic grammar school, you take religion class, as you take English and science and whatever, you take religion. And my religion teacher, who I sparred with constantly on the subject of abortion,

we were, of course, aligned on the subject of capital punishment. So the odd Catholic, you know, dichotomy of whatever, of what side of the liberal, conservative divide that they are on, anti-abortion, but also anti-capital punishment. So that one, I was like, all right, let's go see the, I'll go see the Dead Man Walking Nun. I was also, like, super, I loved that movie that year. So I was very into, that was, that was,

my very first early Susan Sarandon phase where I was like, greatest actress in the world and, but so going to, especially Catholic elementary school, where we had, our principal was a nun, our math teacher was this ancient nun, like the oldest person I'd ever seen in my entire life was our math teacher in junior high. And so, and like all the classics, like very Sister Alma.

where, except she was kind of mean. But, like, couldn't hear anything. Like, the class was chaos. All of us, like, us. I said, I was not a rule breaker. But, like, all of the, like, kids in the class were very much taking advantage of the fact that we had a mostly deaf 8 billion-year-old nun as a teacher. And, but so sister acts was always one where I was just like, oh, yeah, like, look at it. all those nuns. The girls high school that my sister went to was essentially like was in the same building essentially as a full-ass convent. So like they had all sorts of nuns. They had a front row seat. This is where I ask you as Catholic, uh, Catholic school, uh, alumnus. Yes. Whatever. Yes. I say this as if like all Catholic schools are just one big school, one big family. I mean,

this is maybe the moment to ask you about Sister Act 2 back in the habit. Good movie. Good movie, not better than Sister Act 1. There is a millennial disease. You hate Sister Act 2 poptimism. You hate the people that are like Sister Act 2 is the better movie. Here's what I will say about... There's a millennial disease that makes them say constantly that Sister Act 2 is better than Sister Act 1, and I'm sorry, I just don't see it. I know everybody loves Lauren Hill, so do I. But like, no. No. No. No. No. Me, Mom, Sherley Ralph.

I do love Sherley Ralph. Here's what I will say for the cult of Sister Act 2, because I love Sister Act 2. I think anyone who went through some type of high school music program... Okay. All right. Since that movie has come out, whether you were in band or choir, especially if you were choir nerd, you have... I say Sister Act is in my blood, but Sister Act 2, because...

of that, because I was in, like, show choir. Sister Act 2 is in my bones. I hear that. I hear that. You make a solid point with that. Yeah. I think that they're, you know, the outsized love for that movie is maybe rooted in that a little bit.

My thing about Sister Act 2 is you watch that movie and you're like, this existed as a totally other script. And they were like, well, we could just put Dolores in this and make it a Sister act sequel because it makes absolutely no sense. that all the other sister marries. That she is back in the habit? Yeah, it makes sense. Well, yes, and essentially doing it as a favor.

Like, she goes and becomes a full-ass teacher to, like, do them a solid. But, like, also, why are all of these nuns? Why did they leave the convent to go do a school? Like, well, that to me is, like, nuns in a convent and nuns teaching at a school is pretty seamless to me. Like, that to me is sort of like, that's the Catholic experience. It's just like nuns up in your school teaching. Like, that makes sense to me. The thing that we learn at the end of Sister Act 1, though, is that Dolores Van Cartier goes on to become famous.

On the cover of all these magazines and she's famous and whatever. And so, like, it would feel insane that, like, this, even if she's, like, sort of mid-level famous, this mid-level famous singer is now back in her nun outfit teaching. at your high school or your middle school right she's not famous to them because they're too young five years later whoever is famous is no longer famous anymore to but then all their moms should be like oh my god dolores med carchie is your teacher like i read about her and in people magazine this is this is also me coming off of having a visit over at my sisters last night with my niece talking about some full ass singer who is like selling out stadiums who i swear

to God I have never heard of before. Welcome to the rest of your life. It's going to be fun. And I was like, I was like, I'm cool. I know who Olivia Rodrigo is. And she was like, like, she's not as famous as...

Like, five full years ago. Yeah. Like, that's, that's 2000 and late, my friend. So, like, yes, the Lauren Hill teens of Sister Act 2 back in the habit, they don't know who Dolores Van Cartier is. Well, yes, except that, like, youth accelerated slower back. then. You know what I mean? Like, we are at an age of, like, extreme youth acceleration, whereas, like, back then maybe, like, back then when you were in high school, you still knew who, like, who was on VH1. As a VH1 child, as I know you were. Maybe Lauren Hill wasn't because she was cool. Although, ironically, Lauren Hill was very big on VH1 back then. Anyway, the Catholicism of Sister Act definitely, like, there was the, because Sister Act is very much about, like, nuns, like, having. going from nuns to nuns, you know what I mean?

Sure, sure. They're edging ever closer to the nuns having fun calendar. Nothing is better than the nuns having fun calendar. I was literally, we had my family over last night for a little pre-holiday party, and I was talking to my sisters about, because they went to, like I said, the girls' high school that had all the nuns, and they talked about how their gym teacher was a nun. And I was like, that makes me think of that scene in Mermaids where Winona Ryder like sneaks over to the convent and like peers over and they're all playing like stickball on the lawn or whatever.

And I'm like, that's, that's very nuns having fun, right? That is, that's, um, but I just love that idea of just like a nun with like a gym whistle in, uh, around her neck or something like that. It's, it's, it's, I'm going, I'm going to make a proposition to you. You have previously talked about loving, movies that, like, as a concept, are about going to nationals. Yes, I do. The Cister Act franchise, our second finest franchise, are about going to nationals in different ways.

The first one, which, like, if you're a nun, what is going to nationals? We're going to Vatican's. Being in the presence of the Pope, going to nationals. Second one, literally a choir that goes to acquire competition. They go to national. So, to continue in the going to nationals, like, plot line and accelerating the nuns having fun, Sister Act 3 needs to be about how they form a racquetball team. And go to racquetball nationals.

Pickleball. Get on with the cultural trends, Chris. The, they form a pickleball team. Batminton. Yeah. Yes. Got to have quick reflexes. I don't know how much Sister Alma's going to be able to, like, quickly swing that badminton record.

Maybe they're the cheer team for the national priests bad badminton. Now you've just invented palms, though, Chris. Now you've just reinvented palms is what's accidentally happened. I'm working all the way back around to bring it on. Sister Act 3, theoretically coming soon. Yeah. To Disney Plus. I was going to say, what streaming platform is going to, is it Disney Plus?

Disney owns the Sister Acts. The only enticing thing is that apparently Kiki Palmer wants to do it with the thing about Kiki Palmer is, oh, it was a Touchstone movie. I was going to say, like, wait a second, I don't remember that it was a touchdown movie. Oh, I remember Touchstone. Kiki Palmer makes everything better. Kiki Palmer is in a lot of things. And those two things are sort of in like a little bit of like conversation with one another. Truly the hardest working woman in trouble.

Kiki Palmer will be like, yeah, I'll do a game show with Jimmy Fallon. why not? Like, that's fine. Yeah, I'll do singled out with Joel Kimbooster on Quibi. Shout out Joel. I don't think Joel listens, but I love Joel. I love Kiki Palmer. I will never turn down watching something with Kiki Palmer. She is

sort of, I think, ever since she did Joyful Noise, she was in Joyful Noise, right? I'm not mixing up movies. She spiritually feels like she's part of the Sister Act. universal ready. You know what I mean? Like, it does feel like, uh, that's only correct.

Who should the other nuns be, though, if we have Kiki Palmer? Huh. Perhaps Olivia Rodriguez. Billy Eilish has alt-none. Honestly, for as much as I'm not into Billy Eilish, that works for me. I think that fits. I like that. Because, you know, like, if they're going to keep it a musical, there's got to be, like, Like, you know, the words I keep coming up, I'm like, that's a past trend. That is not what the current moment is because I'm like grunge nun, emo nun. That's not really what it is. It's kind of just like a soup of a lot of.

But the thing that's great about Sister Act as a concept is you don't need to pigeonhole yourself into one age range either. Like this is a movie where it's like old nuns, middle age nuns, younger nuns. And so you could do, like, you could really pull from a lot of, you know, a different talent, everybody from a, um, Donna Murphy should be Mother Superior, first of all. I'm just going to say that. But like, um, throw a Bonnie Milligan in there as a nun. Throw a, like, I'm trying to think of like Broadway talent. You know what I mean? That you can throw in there. Um, uh, Kelly O'Hara, although Kelly O'Hara is too glamorous for that. You know what I mean? But like, you know what I mean? But like, you know. No, no, no, no, totally. I hear you. I agree. Now I'm just picking people from the Gilded Age, too, is the other thing. That one lady from the Gilded Age that everybody loves. Sheida Rivera. Oh, my God.

Cheetah Rivera has Sister Alma. All right. We are not only celebrating New Year's with everybody here talking about sister. We want to start the year with something very fun. We will also put the call out on our Patreon series, which first of all, Chris, tell everybody why they should join our Patreon, and then we will talk about why this is the first episode of our Patreon select series for January. Well, our second episode, you're right, you're right, right. But January, we're doing this all in the month of January.

Yes. So listeners, we have a Patreon. We call it this had Oscar buzz turbulent brilliance. For $5 a month, you're going to get two bonus episodes. On the first of the month, we do what we call exceptions. These are movies that really fit the rubric of this had Oscar buzz, but managed to get nominations elsewhere, most recently. Well, today you'll have a brand new episode head over there because this month our Patreon episodes land the same day as regular episodes. Listen to both if you subscribe.

Please, we don't want either of them to get buried. Movies like Australia, which our friend Katie Rich came and joined us for, the lovely book. which was selected by the patrons, Pleasantville, nine, the mirror has two faces. And then on the 15th of the month, we'll be doing what we call excursions, which are like deep dives into Oscar effemina, ephemera that we love to obsess about, uh, things like we're recapping award ceremonies. We've done the 1996 MTV movie awards. We do recaps of the Hollywood Reporter roundtables. We've had an actress one, and this month we're going to be doing a director one. I went to Magic Mike Live, had the greatest night of my life.

Most recently, we did an full awards race recap of where everything stands so far this year. Who knows, maybe by now that things have changed a little bit. Probably not because it's New Year's Day. Not quite yet, yeah. And we like to pop in some surprise. We have a call in line where we're answering listeners' calls. Those pop up on occasion as a nice little surprise for you. Yeah.

And then we also have, we haven't really promoted it, but there might be slots open now if you want to join our sponsor level. But those who are on our sponsor level, if they subscribe at that level for three consecutive months, they get to do, they get to choose an episode on the main feed. That's right. That's why we'll be doing a month of Patreon Selects. That's right. So to celebrate that, we are doing a full month of movies that our patrons have selected. our sponsor-level patrons have selected. These are, they're going to be really good.

We don't give away the farm all the way at the beginning of the month, but trust me, I'm very excited to do all for these movies, starting here with Sister Act. So Sister Act comes from our valued patron Eurochise, and I'm just going to read the request in full before we move on. We love you, Eurochise. Thank you for giving us something for. fun to talk about. Exactly. Exactly. All right. Quote Eurochise. I always loved movies, but didn't pay any attention to the Oscars as a kid. It wasn't until college when I discovered so many films I loved.

Memento, the South Park musical. I remember friends doing a double feature of Mulan Rouge and American Beauty were Oscar nominees or winners. In late 2002, I went to Scotland on exchange for a year. I fell in love with cheesy European dance music known as Eurochise. Thank Sophie Alice Bexter. Shout out to Saltburn, says Joe. I came out to my friends and made a point of expanding my cinema choices. I delved into more international titles like City of God, Itchumama Tambien, discovered Al-Modivar. And I remember the impact of seeing Chicago, and especially the hours in theaters.

After that, I was hooked. To this day, my favorite cheat answer for my favorite actor is the women of the hours, The real answer goes back and forth between Kidman and more. This was all Eurochise's preamble. Eurochise 2 was radicalized by the hours. Listen, we are not alone. We are legion. So, Eurochise has selected Sister Act for us, a movie that on its surface, you'd think, well,

that probably didn't have Oscar buzz. It's a mainstream comedy. it's a, you know, it's a summer movie that wasn't really a ton of ambition. And yet, I say to you, two Golden Globe nominations for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy and Best Picture, Musical or Comedy, we'll get into that. And also, I will say, watching this movie and knowing that Maggie Smith is a two-time Oscar winner, there is a universe in which a beloved actress in a mainstream comedy like this sometimes gets nominated. It's in general, Chris, and you can chime in with your thoughts as well, this is a nice way for us to talk about actors and actresses who have or haven't been nominated for sort of mainstream comedies and like the general sort of comedy conundrum with the Oscars. I think we can use this as a jumping off point for a conversation about that. Because there are some interesting examples that I sort of jotted down as I was thinking about this.

And we'll get into that, obviously, on the other side of the plot description and whatnot. But where do you come down on the Oscar buzziness of Sister Act? Well, to me, the lead on that is Whoopie had chastryness. just won her Oscar and for a comedy performance, too. And she, this, I mean, this movie's a massive hit, and she essentially becomes one of America's favorite actresses in this time period, too. It's interesting that you bring up the Maggie Smith thing,

because I was also thinking, while watching this movie, is like, if this movie comes out 10 years later, and Maggie Smith is in that role, Maggie Smith has absolutely talked about per an Oscar nomination. So it's also just like the performer at that time, at the right time and such. I mean, I do think like this is on the bubble of what we normally do here, but everyone's hung over today. That's the thing. We would not have selected this on our own.

I think if, Chris, if you had brought this up to me on your own, I probably would have been like, but we allow our leeway for our sponsor-level patrons. So this is the kind of deference you can get if you sign up for a, if it said Oscar BuzzPedger sponsorship. Whati is such an interesting Oscar conversation, because not only it's like, she probably is second place, would have won, if not nominated against Geraldine Page and Geraldine Page having the Oscar. For the color purple, yeah. Right.

Whoopi quite probably would have won if it's not. Geraldine Page has been nominated all these times, and they've anointed this is the year that she is going to win. Mm-hmm. But then, you know, Whoopi wins for Ghost, gets a comedy Oscar for Ghost. We'll talk about comedy Oscars. I will say, crucially, though, and this will play into our conversation later, a comedy performance within a drama film, you know what I mean?

Which, like, that I think is crucial to the alchemy there, because... And I think if you also kind of want to look at a scantz at a movie like Sister Act, would the Oscars have considered it. You kind of have to look, like, Ghost is a perfect example next to it because, like, I know people love Ghost. Ghost is, like,

nacho cheese movie. Yeah. Like, Ghost is a deeply less serious movie than Sister Act is. Well, I don't like Ghost. I understand. All right, how am I going to put this?

You're not wrong, except for the fact, that, like, Ghost isn't good, it's great. You know what I mean? It's one of those things where it's just like... If Ghost is great, it's because of Whoopi. Like, when Whoopi shows up in that movie, I'm like, oh, thank God. Well, yes, but also, like, I think of scenes like the get off my train scene with

Vinsensky Valle where, you know, it's like, yes, it's a lot of cheese. Yes, obviously, like, the Unchained Melody scene is, like, so corny. But, like, it also, that's a, that's a perfect example. that scene is not good. That scene is great, though. You know what I mean? Like, it's, it's not, like, I'm not saying it's not just good. I'm saying it is not good, but there is a greatness to what it is anyway. How, like, how it sort of, like, ingrate itself in culture, the sort of like the boldness of its cheese, I think, makes sense. I think Tony Goldwyn's performance is that way, too, as the, you know, sort of sniveling villain. I think it's, I'm not going to say guilty pleasure because I know that, like, that's, you know, we don't want to feel guilty for our pleasures. But I think Ghost is a movie that kind of transcends its shabbiness. I think Sister Act is a very well-put-together comedy that is still, I mean, it's about, you know, a nun on the run from a mobster. You know what I mean?

It's just like... None's having fun on the run. Nuns having fun on the run. There's so many funny scenes, though, in this. We'll talk about it. This has an interesting history. too, because, you know, it's clear that they'd tried to shop around for an interesting director for this,

especially when it was still attached to Bet Midler. Because Almodovar has talked about being approached to direct this movie. Yeah. It's went, like, the, the Hollywood hands that this passed through in the uncredited rewrite. Script-doctored, like crazy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We can talk about Paul. Redneck, too, who's fascinating.

Yes, we will definitely talk about Paul Redneck and the director, because the director also directed Dirty Dancing, which was another movie that did get Oscar, it's an Oscar winner, dirty dancing, so we'll talk about that as well. But yes, this is a classic sort of fudst with, but in a very sort of, like, classic way where it's like, this is how a lot of mainstream comedies were made, right? where, like, there wasn't an auteurist tradition to most of these mainstream comedies, right? They went through a process. They got rewritten.

They went from director to director. They went from star to star. And that was sort of how a lot of these worked. And ultimately, you end up with, and didn't have, like, bad buzz because of it. It's not like, sister act came up being like, boy, this movie, this went through all these problems and all these turnarounds and they couldn't get the script. right and they couldn't get the star right and whatever it's just like no like it's cisteract it's whoopi goldberg in a nun's habit like go see this movie like you know what i mean like what's the

problem there shouldn't be a problem there is no problem um that that poster i want to talk for a second just about the poster which says everything you want to say first of all i think you can almost certainly if you are of a certain age you can picture this poster in your head right the cis drag poster where it's whoopee. She's in the habit. She's got a hand on her hip, of course, because what does that convey? That conveys attitude. She's got her other arm sort of like up on another nun's shoulder to also convey very laid back lack of his lab. She has the what I'm going to call the Whoopi Goldberg sunglasses, which you ever watched her on the Hollywood squares, you know, are like the circular sunglasses that she's wearing like down the

down the bridge of her nose, and she's wearing the thing that stands out, besides the sunglasses, is she's got the bright red pumps because she's not a regular nun. She's a cool, sexy nun. And the top of the poster just says whoopee. No gold, just, just whoopee. That's all you need to know. It's whoopee. And then the tagline is, no sex, no booze, no man, no way. Sister act. That is my new year's resolution. No sex, no booze, no man, no fun. Absolutely not. I will leave my day with all of them. I do love this movie. I was so happy to be able to watch it last night. Chris, I'm going to read some boilerplate information,

and then I'm going to challenge you with a 60-second point. plot description of Sister Act, and you will do it with your eyes closed, because I'm sure that you can replay the movie in your head all on its own. All right. So we are talking about on this January 1st day, the first day of 2024, we are talking about Sister Act, directed by Emil Ardilino, written by Paul Rudnick, although, as we mentioned, not ghostwritten, but script doctored by the likes of Carrie Fisher and Nancy Myers. So many so that he contended to have his name taken

off the movie. Listen, you keep your name on this movie, Paul Redneck. It's one of the best ones that you're... Paul Redneck's got a lot of... Especially 90s comedies, like... Yes. He knew what was going on. We don't have to talk about that awful pandemic Zoom

movie that he made about politics. I do not acknowledge. We don't. Starring Whoopi Goldberg, Maggie Smith, Harvey Kitell, Kathy and Jimmy, Wendy McKenna, Mary Wicks, Bill Nunn, Joseph Marr, Jennifer Lewis, a bunch of other wonderful women as nuns who we will want to acknowledge, including our Queen Ellen Albertini Dow. Do not think that I did not write her name down in big capital letters on my notes. We'll talk about it. This movie premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Just kidding. It

premiered May 29th, 1992, in wide release nationwide. Okay. Yes. First of all. First of all. I know that things like this have become too cliche of a phrase for us to even say anymore, but like, Summer's movie's sister act, truly we used to be a country, a real country. Okay.

Do we want to do this before we talk, do the plot description talk about what open that we do? I, as per usual, I've run us a field. That's fine. That's fine. That's fine. What a weekend, though. Like, May 29th, 1992, this would be, would this have been Memorial Day? Probably not, because the Monday.

No, it's probably after Memorial Day. Yeah, I would think. All right. Anyway, in its third week in release, your number one movie is Lethal Weapon 3. That's, you know what? Honestly, fine. I'm not a lethal weapon person. I don't begrudge those movies, but like, whatever.

Leithful weapon three. Sister Act opens number two. Followed by the second week of a trio of movies that opened the week before being... Alien Cubed. Alien Cubed. David Finchers, Alien Cubed. Far and away, this had Oscar Buzz approved. Far and away, the movie where Tom Cruise punches a horse.

and where Nicole Kidman lifts up a bowl to peek at... Look at his weenie. Tom's... What's a good Irish term for... His meat in two bits. His meat and two bits is tallywacka. Anyway, Encino Man rounds out the top five, which, as everybody promoting the Brendan Fraser Oscar campaign...

Can't talk about it. ...could not stop talking about Encinom Man. Number six, basic instance. Number 7, Beethoven, a double feature for the gods. Go see Basic Instinct followed by Beethoven, Beethoven followed by Basic Instinct. Go to the Cineplex with your whole family and shove the kids into the Beethoven Theater, and then you go to see Basic Instinct. That's maybe the plan.

In the 29th week of release, Beauty and the Beast is still hanging out in the top 10 from the year before. like dominant. The mayor is still using an ashtray as a top hat. Uh, number nine. Oh, making over a million dollars on the weekend. Just casually in its eighth week of release, The Player, Robert Altman's The Player, is playing the theaters.

Like, God bless it. Uh, white men can't jump in its 10th week. It's number 10. My cousin Vinnie, Wayne's World. Fern Gully Howard's End Howard's End Amazing

What a time to be alive And going Okay Chris What's your double feature We've played this game What's the Okay so This is the early 90s

You know There's not 20 and 30 screen theaters Right In this day and age So we'll just say from the top 10 What's my double feature? Yeah Let's assume that anything

playing on over a thousand screens during this weekend would be at your local general cinemas, let's say. Okay, so that rules out the player from this list. Yeah, definitely Sister Act and Basic Instinct. I mean, that's pretty good. With the caveat that I have probably already seen Beauty and the Beast by this point, yeah, I think Sister Act and Basic Instinct is pretty good.

That's pretty bulletproof. I love that. But, like, truly, pick any weekend in 1992, and I'm probably going to be just, like, plotting like crazy that like all these options were available to us. All right. Christopher, after that little diversion, I still have 60 seconds on my little stopwatch for you. Are you ready to describe the plot of sister act? Yeah. All right. And begin. All right. So Dolores Van Cartier is a Reno lounge singer. She is dating a mobster who gives her

his wife's coat, and then she sees him shoot a guy, and she goes into vague witness protection program, and they place her where else, would you put a, like, slutty lounge singer? But in a convent, and she hates the convent. She does not do well there.

The Mother Superior in her really butt heads. And after Dolores sneaks out as punishment, the Mother Superior, it's like, you're going to run the choir now. And she does run the choir and actually, like, shapes them up. And they start doing, like, a 60s girl group music. that is also vaguely religious,

so much so that it starts drawing in the congregation and the youths, really, and draws the attention to the Pope. That attention gets her caught by her ex-lover. She gets kidnapped. All the nuns run to Reno and save her, and then they come back and they perform for the Pope. With four seconds to spare, good Lord. Not a lot of plot beats in Sister Act.

This movie runs like a machine. It's on rails. This movie's on rails. It's totally true. And yet, never really feels particularly rushed. There's only really one montage, the CNC Music Factory aforementioned montage, where they're like going out in the community. They're going out in the community and like doing good. And I love that part of the movie.

They're learning how to 90s dance with the girls on the street. They are doing, the girls are teaching them body rolls. They're teaching them step touch dancing. It's, it's also the part that was in every TV spot. and, of course, the trailer. Whoopi Goldberg, in a nun's habit, doing double dutch. Like, put that clip somewhere in the Smithsonian, somewhere. Just we need to recognize.

There are so many. Along with Kathy and Jimmy, white girl twerking. I feel like that was in every TV spot. Also that. We'll talk about Kathy and Jimmy soon enough because, like, what an icon. What a performance. There is so much Whoopi Goldberg iconography in this movie. there's um

I can't remember what is the line I should have written it down what is the line when she when Maggie Smith first has her put on the habit and Whoopi's like I look like a penguin and I don't know another and Maggie Smith says something sassy to her and Whoopi literally does

the like hand on the hip like neck cocked like that pose and I'm like that is um Whoopi Goldberg's sass in like in a nutshell But like the double Dutch scene, the scene where at the end where they're performing for the Pope and she, when the song hits the crescendo and she does sort of like the jump in upside, up, up, yes, up. Yes, yes, yes. I'm glad we're on the same page with this. It's, listen, she's given, she's a, Wuppie Goldberg's a great actress. Like, star. I'm not going to say that this is a better performance than her Seeley in the color.

purple but like this is maybe and like ghost is obviously like it's her Oscar win or whatever I still feel like in many ways sister act is the definitive Whoopi Goldberg performance for me part of that is my age I'm not old enough to have seen like Jumpin Jack Flash or anything like that but or like 80s who would be and I know 80s who would be for like people who are slightly older than me is maybe more defining and maybe it's just a function of my age but like this is the movie where she kind of transitions from theater wonderkin to bona fide movie star

even like after her Oscar I think because obviously like the amount of money that this movie makes on her shoulders is part of that but like you know she was known initially for her one woman show that got catapulted to

Broadway when Mike Nichols I believe came on board as a producer that eventually gets her the job as Seeley in color purple Do you know how often I watch on YouTube the clip from the view from the morning that Mike Nichols died and them announcing it and sort of eulogizing and Whoopi cannot speak? Like literally she keeps trying to talk and she cannot do it. And so like Rosie O'Donnell who was on the panel at that time and Nicole Wallace step in and sort of talk about what Mike Nichols meant to Whoopi Goldberg. I don't think I could watch that. I feel like I would be weeping. It's so touching. It's so sad. But it's also like, and I mean, you know, I am a Mike Nichols fanboy. We'll have that conversation later today. We go over to our Patreon if you want to hear us talk about Mike Nichols.

I will say to like piggyback on this exact thing is like one of the things that's pointed out in like the Mark Harris book from so many people is like, there are a lot of people who felt that way that whoopey felt in that moment about Mike Nichols. We've talked about Natalie Portman. we've talked about it, Net Benning, like, all that stuff. Like, yes, like, that is, that was the gift of Mike Nichols in that, like, he did have that kind of a relationship with so many great. Actresses especially, actors, too, I'm sure, but, like, actresses especially, he was a tremendous director of actresses, and that is why I'm such a fan. But going back to, like, like, Whoopie as a movie star, there was that, like, post-color purple, she's in Jump and Jack Flash in 1986, which was, like, a big deal.

that's another poster. She's so funny in that movie. You can picture that one in your head, right, where she's, like, doing the, like, full, like, jumping in the air, spread eagle above the New York City skyline. Fatal Beauty, which is a movie I've never seen, but I know that she plays Detective Rita Rosoli because that is one of the great character names of all time, Detective Rita Rosoli. And, you know, she's in a bunch of, you know, movies where she is, they put her in a lot of different situations. I think you see that to after Sister Act, where it's just like her 90s are very much like, what if Whoopi Goldberg did this? What if Whoopi Goldberg owned a basketball, or whatever, coached a basketball team? What if Whoopi

Goldberg, the associate? Yeah. What if Whoopi Goldberg was a lawyer? What if Whoopi hung out with a dinosaur? Yeah. But I think your major signposts there are like obviously color, purple, ghost. She is in soap dish, of course, a crucial role in soap dish, part of that great ensemble. But then like Sister Act, Sister Act kicks off like a 1990s of every year had like at least one Whoopi Goldberg movie. What's the Whoopi Goldberg movie this year? Well, it's Made in America or it's Carina Carina, or it's Eddie, as we said, or The Associate, or Boys on the Side, even. It was pretty much sold as, like, an ensemble movie, but with Whoopi as, like, First Among Equals, that kind of a thing. Also, though, I want to mention...

She joins the Star Trek Universe as well. She joins the Star Trek universe. In the late 90s, she, of course, is the Center Square on the Hollywood Squares and does such a tremendous... job and that. I just recently rewatched the player, speaking of the player, which Whoopi has a supporting role in, and she has the line that I remember, speaking of lines that you remember from the trailer and from all the TV spots, where Tim Robbins, she's sort of, Tim Robbins is in her office, and she's sort of, she's not interrogating him, but she's like questioning him, and he's like, he got the wrong guy, and she goes, we do not arrest the wrong person in

this is Pasadena. We do not arrest the wrong person in Pasadena. We do not arrest the wrong person. That's L.A. And, like, that line is in every single, it was in every single ad. But, yeah, some of these, like, 90s failures to give way towards

her being a supporting player in a lot of, like, prestigious dramas, like, how still got her groove back, the deep end of the ocean, girl interrupted. And also during this time, she's hosting the Oscars, too. And I would argue gives Billy Crystal a run for greatest Oscar host. I would maybe say Whoopi is the greatest Oscar host.

That's a strong statement. I am not inclined to disagree, although I would probably pick somebody else. You know, I'm such a huge Steve Martin fan. I will say, Whoopi's hosting of the 2001 Academy Awards, that take place in 2002, the ones right after 9-11, the very sort of, like, difficult, tonal task of those Oscars. They're also one of the longest Oscar ceremonies ever. She does such a great fucking job. That's the one where she opens and she's, she descends from the ceiling, the Satine number, and it's so well done.

So she hosted four times. she hosted the Schindler's List Oscars, the 1995 Braveheart Oscars, the Shakespeare and Love Oscars, and the 2001 Beautiful Mind Oscars. So, four times, I would say, like, it's so funny because, like, she was never that well reviewed. Remember how I've talked about how, like, TV critics have ruined the Oscars? Right. And I think that's part of what I talk about when I think. Every single time Whoopi would host the Oscars, she would get bad reviews. And it was, people really did not like her joke style.

I remember reading a lot of critics talk about how, like, she laughs too much at her jokes when they bomb. It's just like, okay, like, first of all, petty, second of all, like, she's such a good MC for those, you know, for that crowd, especially her crowdwork. I always talk about the one where it's two moments from the 98 Oscars. One, where they come back from commercial, and Kurt Russell and Goldie Hahn are still trying to get into their seats. And their seats are, like, in the middle of a row. And she just, like, Stubby just stops what she's saying. And just like, hey, Kurt, hey, Goldie. She's like, and just sort of chatting with them as they're finding their seats.

It's great. And then that same one, they did the gimmick where for all the costume design nominees, she would walk out at a different point in the show, dressed in the costumes. That's when she dressed up in, like, the Velvet Gold Mine outfit and whatever. And so the one, she walks out dressed in the costumes from Beloved. And she just sort of like makes this like really sardonic joke. She's like, can't believe they got me. She's, you know, talking about how like all these other women get to dress up so glamorous. And she goes, and I'm looking like topsy.

And it gets little like titters in the, and then she just looks out in the crowd. And she goes, and she shouts out Debbie Allen. And she goes, To present the Foreign Language Film Award, a legendary international screen beauty. It's great. She's going to look phenomenal. I'm out here looking like Topsy. Thank you, Debbie. I think we're the only ones who know who a Topsy is, child.

It's just like, it's so wonderful. I treasure that moment. Whoops. I think Whoopi is also, especially at that time, someone who was famous to everyone. Oh, yes. Drew people together. Like, we talk about four quadrant movies.

Sister Act is like a 9 million quadrant movie. I feel like especially for our generation, like, we watched this movie as full-blooded children. Right. I don't remember much of my movie obsessive life without Sister Act. Like, Whoopie is probably the first famous, one of the first, if not the first. Like, it's her and maybe Julia Roberts. I'm like, I know who this famous person is because they are in movies. Well, and she was also famous for her look.

She had, you know, the braids and whatnot and the sunglasses and, of course, the stage name, you know what I mean? Like, it's everything about Whoopi Goldberg was iconic, especially at that moment. I would argue still is. Like, the fact that she's been hosting the view for, you know, all this time and whatever. She still's producing memes out there, too. Nothing better than the video of her with a pause. going, okay. Right, right, exactly, exactly.

It's, uh, listen, it's, it's, it's been an experience being part of the Whoopi Goldberg era of fame. But right, like a classic movie star, a classic Hollywood star in every, you know, sense of the word, really helped to define the late 80s and 90s, I think, at the movies. and Sister Act, I think, is a definitive mainstream comedy of the 90s. If you're talking about the most classic down the middle, does what it needs to do, high concept, right? What if Whoopi Goldberg was a nun sold? You know what I mean?

Like, all you had to do is say that. And, but carries it off so well with such charm. And what if Nuns sang a bunch of Leslie Gore songs? Like, absolutely. Right, exactly. Exactly. The music, yeah, she gets to really show off her talent with music, which I think is really, you know, a lot of fun. Just from the beginning scene where it's her and Jennifer Lewis, and I can't remember the name of the other woman who plays her other backup singer. But performing at the lounge in Reno. And the very first thing you see, they're performing like, you know, my guy and all these sort of like girl group songs. And she's struggling, she's struggling to get the mic off of the mics. stand. And it's one of those things where it's just like, if you're just sort of like listening and like halfway paying attention, you're on your phone or whatever, you're not really going to

notice. But she's like, she's so frustrated trying to get this mic off of the stand. And all the other, like, they're half-heartedly going through this performance. And like, obviously it's all meant to communicate that like she is, you know, at the end of her rope in Reno and she's not, you know, the thrill is gone, all this sort of stuff. And at one point, Jennifer Lewis, as they're going into like their closing number is just like, let's just get this over. like, let's get off the stage. We got to, we got to end this. Um, and then she's throwing in at the end where like, uh, she's like, you don't give a shit, yelling to the, to the crowd of people who are like on their slot machines at the bottom of their glass of whiskey or whatever. Nobody cares. Um,

and then she uses that, that, that vision later to help motivate Sister Mary Robert to sing out. And it's wonderful. Um, it's a well-constructed movie for what it is. Yeah, it's a machine. It's a perfect comedy. Yeah. Pardon me. All right. To get into, I think, we talked about the Whoopi Goldberg of it, to get into the sort of like writer-director aspect of it. So this comes from a script from Paul Rudnick. Who is Paul Rudnick? He is a writer. He is a writer who has one of those people who you look at his filmography. And it's like, oh, okay, like, all of these movies that I've heard before, and you can, and it starts to make sense that, like, oh, all of this stuff kind of, like, makes sense. He's a gay writer who wrote, who, like, went to Ivy League, right? He went to Yale, you know what I mean? Like, he's, like, incredibly, like, well, you know, well-heeled and whatnot, wrote a lot for magazines for these big

sort of glossy mags, like Vogue and Vanity Fair and Esclare and all that. this sort of stuff. Including film criticism under a female pseudonym. Oh, right. What's the, I can never remember it's, oh, shit. Hold on, let me look this. Like Libby Waxman or something like that, right? Shit.

It's Libby Gellman Waxner, yes, is the pseudonym, yes. Wrote for a column for Premier, I believe, is where that column was. But, like, did a lot of playwright, was a, you know, playwright for a while. Obviously, the one that crosses over into a film is a play that he wrote called Jeffrey that was remade, that was made into a film starring. Tony Goldwyn, Patrick Stewart, right? It's, is it Tony Goldman? It's not Tony Goldman.

It's the one that looks like Tony Goldman. It's Stephen Weber. Stephen Weber from Wings, yes. Um, and then wrote the, sorry, trying to bring up his IMDB page. He did Adam's Family Values. He was one of the ghost writers on the original Adam's Family, gets the gig for Adam's Family Values, makes it incredibly gay and wonderful. Yes.

In and Out, famously. In and Out, famously. Um, Marcy X. famously. How could we ever forget Marcy X? I mean, easily, but also Lisa Kudrow vehicle, Marcy X. It's just a lot of very recognizable

mainstream 90s comedies that have, if not a specifically gay narrative, like In-N-Out or Jeffrey. They have elements to it that it's no accident that gay people have sort of glommed on to, right? Or he writes something like the Stefford Wives remake, which has appealed to only gay people. Right. And has, I would say, a fairly, I've talked about this before, maybe not on the podcast, maybe just with you, about the, like, the oddly forward-thinking depiction of the gay couple where,

it's this conflict between assimilation and not, which I think in 2004 kind of presaged the post-marriage equality vision of gay debate. Do you know what I mean? There's so much about that Stepford Wives remake that I'm ready to show up guns ablazing, ready to defend, but that movie does completely fall apart. It does. It does. But it's an interesting failure. I was very glad when I ended up watching it because I avoided it for so long because it has such a bad reputation. But Rudnick was also attached to Sister Act when it was still going to be a Bet Midler project. And it's interesting that he and Bet Midler remained so close. I believe he was also one of the Ghostwriters on First Wives Club. He also did the Misbegotten, Isn't She Great,

the Jacqueline Suzanne biopic that she starred in. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yep. Very much so. But again, it's just sort of a real working writer in, you know, that sort of classic sense, in that sort of almost like merrily we roll along sense, where, you know, you're just sort of like, you know, you're getting a feature article wherever you can. You're getting your work out there however you can. And, um, an interesting personality for sure.

And then you talk about also then director Emil Ardolino, who directed most famously, besides a sister act, directed dirty dancing, but also directed movies like Three Men and a Little Lady, and Chances Are, which is the one, the movie, remember when I described to you the plot of Chances Are starring Sybil Shepard and Robert Donnie Jr. and Ryan O'Neill, the movie that after all is nominated for in an original song, where Sybil Shepard's husband dies and is reincarnated as Robert Donny Jr., who then, unbeknownst to the reincarnate, like, doesn't know that he's the reincarnated Ryan O'Neill and falls in love with the daughter, played by Mary Stewart Masterson. It's wild. Double feature it with birth. Yeah, yes. And then also Gypsy.

Did I mention Gypsy that made for TV? Speaking of Bet Midler, the best filmed version of Gypsy, it was for TV. And now I guess that it's kind of hard to get your hands on this. I think, let me pull up this. Did I tell you? Well, I've never said it on the podcast, but when I went on vacation, the house that we stayed at on vacation in the summer. And I was trying to get you to go home with it because I think that DVD is out of print. The DVD for Gypsy, but I was able to

copy the file onto my computer. So I have on my computer a pirated Betmethered Gypsy, which I don't think... Oh, it's currently available. You can watch it on Freevi and Crackle. God bless Freevi, man. What a great year for freebie. Jury duty, Primo, and you can watch the Betmother Gypsy. Who could ask for it? All you need. What else do you need? All you need. Emil Ardolino

tragically died of AIDS in 1993, so not very long after Sister Act and Gypsy Gypsy was the last made two movies after Cister Act, the Nutcracker, the misbegotten

Oh, no, it's not the Macaulay-Calkin Nutcracker. It is, it's got to be. And then the Betmuthar Gypsy died of AIDS in late 1993, one of a generation of great talented people who we lost

to AIDS. But, like, what a legacy. If nothing else, you made dirty dancing, you made Sister Act, like, that's a goddamn legacy right there. Yeah, exactly. Exactly right. So,

Sister Act opens in the spring of 1992. I am all of 11 years old. I must have seen that in theaters, but I don't really have a specific memory of it. My one sister, who would have been seven at the time, so maybe we didn't, maybe we waited until it came out on video, because I remember, she's the one I remember watching this one with most often, but it's a huge hit.

$231 million worldwide, over 130 domestic, which back in the early 90s is like, A massive hits. I should see where it landed on the yearly box office, because I bet you it was pretty high for 1992. 1992's top grossing movie? Do you want to take a guess at it? Is it... What do we mention from that? It has to be Beauty and...

Well, yeah, it's Beauty and the Beast. No, Beauty and the Beast is 91. I'm talking about, like, in-year releases. But I am not Jasmine. I am... Aladdin. Aladdin, number one for that year with $217 million. Sister Act finished number six on the year behind Aladdin, Home Alone 2, Lost in New York, Batman Returns, which go check out the podcast like it's 1992 feed and listen to Chris and me talk about the wonderful Batman returns on that podcast.

Lethal Weapon 3, a few good men, and then Sister Act. Sister Act spent the entire summer in the top 10. Yeah, yeah. Huge hit, huge hit. Which is why, ultimately, it's a two-time Golden Globe nominee also, because in musical or comedy, you have, I love, I, catch me simping for the Golden Globes on the regular, but like, sorry, but like, I love the way that the musical or comedy best picture category is often composed in the, at the Golden Globes. it's like you've got your two or three comedies that are positioning themselves for Oscars.

And some years, the, you know, the balance is different. But like, your two or three movies that are positioning themselves for Oscars, then you have maybe one movie that's like from England or, you know, rarely every once in a while from France, what's Gerard Depard Depardue up to right now. And then you've got like one or two mainstream. comedies that did well. You know what I mean? Like mainstream comedies that succeeded. And I think you look at the 1992 Golden Globe lineup for musical or comedy. And it's like, yeah, okay. So the winner is the player, because the player was positioning itself for major awards. Robert Altman. This was like a big comeback project for Altman, as I recall. It's the year before shortcuts, too, I think. Shortcuts is the year after. So the player and then shortcuts are he gets back. Back-to-back, lone director nominations at the Oscars, which is always really incredible to think of. So the player wins Best Picture Musical or Comedy.

Aladdin is nominated, which is like massive hit. It's Disney. This is before they... It's a musical. This is when they still allowed animated movies to be nominated in musical or comedy rather than their own little category. Then we take a trip across the pond to England for Enchanted April, another movie that showed up in the Oscar nominations got a supporting actress not for Joan Plowright. And then for the hits of that year,

and like 1992 had no shortage of mainstream comedy hits to choose from. So the ones that the Golden Globes chose were two Nevada-based films, Sister Act, and Honeymoon in Vegas. So they had Reno to Vegas, everything was covered. Center of the Comedy Universe, Nevada. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So it's interesting. I look at the movies of 1992, though, and you look at what other comedies might have made it in there instead of, let's say, the honeymoon in Vegas slot, which, like, I watched honeymoon in Vegas when I was little. I've not watched it since I was probably in my teenage years. I'm not sure it holds up, but like, who could say? Maybe I'll watch it again. But like, 1992 comedies that could have made it in there, a league of their own, let's just say. I mean. I mean. Wayne's World, which is like not the Golden Globes cup of tea at all. I would have never expected Wayne's World, but like it was a massive hit.

And like that is a movie that does hold up. Like you go back and watch Wayne's World and like that is a well-constructed dumb comedy. You know what I mean? It does dumb comedy so well, I think. I bet you they would have characterized white men can't jump as a comedy, even though they're like dramatic elements to that movie. Um, what else? What else? What else? What else? My beloved house sitter, of course, death becomes her. My cousin Vinnie. Um, my cousin Vinnie, not getting that nomination is very, very surprising, surprising. Surprising, right? It's very surprising. Strain. And Honeymoon in Vegas made less money than all those. Honeymoon in Vegas only made 35 million and was the number 41 movie of the year. So, like, all of those movies that I've mentioned previously. Um, I wonder if Honeymoon in Vegas was just fresher on people's minds. maybe. Columbia Pictures got on their horse for that one, and they're like, listen, we got to make it happen.

It did make more money than Stop her, my mom will shoot, though. So I guess that's why Stopper, my mom will shoot. She did not get nominated. But anyway, yeah, like, there's... This movie used people that gets multiple acting nominations at the Globes in comedy. Right. Well, that seems to me where it's just like, show a bunch of maybe older foreign press members, a movie with like, is that Marcella Mastriani and Shirley MacLean who both get nominated? Is that? Yes. Yeah, yeah.

Also, Mr. Saturday Night, the Billy Crystal movie that gets David Pamer a nomination. But I believe that's a drama. Would not change that nomination for the world. Billy Crystal's nominated in musical or comedy, though. Oh, yes. Oh, interesting. Well, then I guess they did characterize it as a comedy. Yeah, who were the acting nominations in musical or comedy that year?

That's probably instructive, huh? Tim Robbins wins for the player. also opposite Billy Crystal Mr. Saturday Night, Nicholas Cage, Honeymoon in Vegas, the aforementioned Marcello Mastroyani for used people, Tim Robbins for Bob Roberts as well. A dark comedy, right? Like a sort of bleak, um,

political. Election comedy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Actress in a musical or comedy is where Whoopi shows up for Sister Act. Loses to Miranda Richardson for Enchanted April. Which is, I think, a function of Oscar momentum there. Sure, sure.

But she's not nominated for Enchanted April. Plus, she was a double nominee that year. And there was a lot of, I think in the 90s, there was more of a, well, if somebody's double nominated, they really should win somewhere, a sentiment to it. And she's nominated in Supporting for Damage, which is where she ends up nominated at the Oscars. But yeah, Miranda Richardson and Joan Plowright, both winning for Enchanted April. They fucking loved that movie.

Right. Which feels right for the Globes. Like, that feels like a very globesy kind of a movie. Gina Davis for a league of their own. Shirley MacLean for Used People. And Meryl, for Death Becomes Her, no Goldie Hawn. Right, which... I have to say.

Having not seen Used People. I know. I don't want to, like, throw Shirley out with a bathwater for a movie I haven't seen. I have to say, Miranda Richardson, who I love, who I think is incredible in damages. damage. This is highway robbery. Oh, agreed. Highway robbery. Over all of Gina or... All of her fellow nominees, I will just say, because Shirley McLean is Shirley McLean. So if they're giving globes to Madame Sousatka for Shirley MacLean, maybe Shirley McLean has enough golden globes. Fair, fair. I think we should do that movie eventually just to

Madam Susatka? Yes, we should. See whatever the hell, Madam Susatka is. Gary's, if you've seen Madam Sousatska, talk to us. Yeah, if you've been a former guest on this show and want to claim Madam Sousatka as your next episode of this at Oscar Buzz, get at us because that could be fun. But yeah, I think I'm just in a very justice for the unnominated comedies of 92 place for the Golden Globes this year. But what are you going to do? I think a league of their own in general was probably worthy of quite a bit of extra attention. More than it ever ended up receiving. Yeah, yeah.

It is kind of a kick in the ass for Goldie Hawn to not get nominated alongside Street because it is such a classic two-hander and she's so good. Like, Merrill's great. They're both incredible in that movie. There was a certain level of distaste for that movie. the time, though. You go back and you read some of these reviews. It was also a very expensive movie that I think barely broke even or was just shy of breaking even. I can also admit that like, Death Becomes Her is a lopsided movie that is like way better in its first half than its second half. The second half really kind of tapers off. For a while, there's a lot of Bruce Willis

running around a mansion trying to... Willis is so funny. He is funny in that. It's true. And reviews, if I remember correctly, were absolutely not kind to Bruce Willis, but I think Bruce Willis is so funny in that movie. That movie, I love that movie so much. You talk about classic, first time I ever saw an actor in a movie. That was absolutely the first time I had ever seen Isabella Rossolini and anything. That was absolutely the first time I never saw Merrill Street. You know what I mean? And so you, the first time you'd ever seen who? Merrill Streep. Get out of here. I didn't really realize, like, there was a moment that had to dawn on me that, oh, that's Meryl. Like, I knew Meryl for other things as Meryl Streep after I was

already a child obsessed with Death Becomes Her because, like, I like, I like spooky things kind of, I guess, I don't know. But, like, I feel like I've talked about this before. My mom's favorite actress is Goldie Hawn, or at least that's what she claimed as a kid. So it's like, this is why I love house sitter and all of that. So it's like, when I saw Death Becomes Her and Love Death Becomes Her as a kid. I knew it as a Goldie Hawn movie. Sure. That makes sense. And now that you mentioned that, there are probably are not too many Merrill movies that I would have seen before Death Becomes Her. Like, I definitely was aware of She Devil at the time.

So I may have seen She Devil first, but like, that may be, those may be the first two Merrill's that I ever saw. Death Becomes Her was like a big, big mainstream hit. So I definitely wanted to see that one as soon as. as it came out on video. It's a little fax nominee. And rightly so. Great movie. But anyway, so the first thing I'd ever seen Isabella Rosalini in was Death Becomes

Her. And of course, it's so like, that scene with her where the only top she's wearing is this like bib of jewels that is like only strategically covering up her nipples to avoid the R-rating. You watch the Blu-ray and you can definitely see the little, like, Pasties. Yeah, I bet. I bet. But she's also like, she's funny, but not in a way that you would appreciate as a like when I saw that movie when I was 13. You know what I mean? Where it's just like, mostly it was just like this woman is being like very overtly sexual in a way that I'm like, what's going on here? And now you watch it and it's just like, oh, she's very funny. Like the, you know, very dry, dryly funny and like playing off. But like the part where she talks about like, As one of our clients famously said, I want to be alone, like that kind of thing. But now you look at... She's terrific.

Isabella Rossellini in the last 15 years of her career, I would say kick-starting with her guest appearance on 30 Rock. I want full stake in the Arby's franchises we bought outside of Telluride. Oh, damn it, Johnny, you know I love my big beef and cheddar. That whole thing. But now she's almost like, she's not exclusively, but like, she's so often, so well-deployed. as comedic support or, you know, like, obviously, like, I loved her as the voice. She just rolls into La Cimera and is funny. Exactly, exactly.

She, I don't know, I don't think you watch the Julia Child show on Max. She's hysterically funny. She plays, if you've seen Julian Julia, she plays Simca, the co-author of the cookbook, who in the movie is portrayed as the flaky, like, whatever. And in the TV show, she's, like, so wildly jealous of Julia at, like, every turn, but also their best friends, but also, like, she kind of can't stand her. And it's such a funny performance. She's really good. Isabel Rosalini, I think, is one of the most self-aware of her persona. Yeah. Her screen persona performers. Yes. Yes. She knows exactly. enables her to be very funny without ever appearing to try to be very funny, because I think

the comedy that she gives in Death Becomes Her is so effortless. And maybe there's some things that I'm like, this is a little effortful, maybe a little too self-aware, like Marcel the Shell, even though she's the best thing about that movie. You and I have a fundamental impasse about that movie. I love that movie so much. Sorry. How dare you? But anyway, where are we?

How did we get into this conversation? Oh, the Golden Globes. We're talking about the Golden Globes comedy. Yes, it's, yeah. This is a good time. I feel like we maybe talked about this a little bit on our Mere Has Two Faces, Patreon episode. It's not, like, we talk about comedy Oscars. And I think because, like, as the 90s progressed and then getting into the, like, self-serious Oscars of the aughts,

yeah. Comedy Oscars eventually kind of die out. But, like, I think supporting actress especially has a lot of, you know, and like, this is the year that Marissa Tomei wins. This is the year that Marissa Tomei wins. You look at, yeah, you have as you go through the years, Joan Cusack and In and Out and Melissa McCarthy and bridesmaids and that kind of thing. It definitely comedy performances come out more often, excuse me, in the supporting categories. But I also always think of, you have your handful. of nominations from like pure, what I would call like pure comedies. Like Oldie Hawn and Private

Benjamin, I think, is a pretty like down the middle comedy. Tom Hanks and Big, even though there are emotional moments, I think that's mostly, you know, straight up and down comedy. Dean Stockwell gets nominated for Married to the Mob in 1988, but I think there is a world in which Michelle Pfeiffer probably should have been nominated for that movie as well. She's so funny in that. But like she gets snubbed for that. Rupert Everett is snubbed in 97 for my best friend's wedding. I think more often for comedy performances to get nominated, there has to be something else. Comedy plus drama. Like Whoopi and Ghost is a comedy performance inside of a drama. Kathleen Turner and Peggy Sue got married as a comedy performance inside this sort of like fantasy

romance. Sharon Moonstruck is a comedy drama. You know, Merrill and Postcards from the Edge is comedy drama, that kind of a thing. I think it's also, there has to be a trajectory thing, usually, too, because whoopi wins for Ghost after almost winning for color purple. Share wins for Moonstruck after almost winning for Silkwood. I think that's true. I mean, I do think that there's a lot of examples in the 80s and 90s of, like, comedy performances getting nominated.

And I think even if you remove, like, the Woody Allen examples, there's still a lot of examples to go because, like, you have bullets over Broadway. Mighty Aphrodite both winning comedy supporting Oscars in the 90s. But I do think there is a difference between a comedy, a sort of a comedy with quote unquote heft to it or a comedy with gravitas to it and a like straight up mainstream comedy, a performance in a death becomes her or sister act or a league of their own. You know what I mean? And even a league of their own has like other elements to it. But, like, there has to be something where voters can be like, all right, it's a comedy, but it's also a really great romance. Oh, it's also a really great, you know, she has these really great dramatic moments or whatever.

And Sister Act doesn't really bother with that. It doesn't bother giving who be this, like, you know, big, dramatic, whatever. She's just funny throughout. And it's just, you know. And I think, like, the stage musical, I never saw it because. I did, actually. it just felt like the type of thing where it's like first of all sick of these movie adaptations being on Broadway second of all there's a zero percent chance that it even approaches the heights of the movie right but they they give mother superior more dramatic moments right in the musical I'm going to say I don't remember very much I know I know I saw it but I don't remember very much how the inclination could be there in the movie.

Like, if this was made today, they would give the Mother Superior a sad monologue about something, right? Would tell a story about something from her days of a young nun, whatever, jaded her, what made her become this sort of very strict disciplinarian. Yeah, let's talk about Maggie Smith for a second, though,

because I couldn't swear to it, but I feel like this was also, if not a comeback, for Maggie Smith, like, was a, the beginning of a much more visible period in her career than had been for, like, you know, the 80s. She is nominated, of course, for Room of the View that year. Hold on a second. So she, of Maggie Smith. So she, of course, is a two-year.

Time Academy Award winner. She wins 1969 for the prime of Miss Jean Brody, best actress, a good movie. A movie that sort of is, the title feels a little fancy and prim for what the movie actually is. The movie is really full of these sort of

radical ideas and like a darkness to her character that is really satisfying possibly questionable politics with this character yeah um but it's a great performance and then she wins uh at the end of the 70s in 1978 for california suite a film i have not seen but i believe you have if we talked about this uh she that is a very interesting oscar win to me because i think that movie's kind of actively terrible i don't think she's particularly great in it though I guess I understand how

if you're going to be appreciating that movie she's probably going to be one of the top things that you appreciate about it. She's playing opposite Michael Kane who is vaguely closeted as her husband and she basically spends

it's kind of like a very episodic movie between all of these different stories so it's like their portion of the story she just spends basically being like well why won't fuck me. Why are you gay? She's on a mission to get her gay husband to have sex with her, basically. She barks the F-sler at him. Wow. And I was like, wow, Oscar-winning F-sler performance. Great. Never, I don't think I can think of another one that's not like, I don't know, a macho

gangster role. Right. Oh, wow. She's also, by the way, nominated for 1972's Travels with my aunt, which I've never seen. Have you ever seen that movie? I have not, but sounds like something I would like. I know, same. So her 1980s, I mean, of course, 1981, she's in Clash of the Titans playing the goddess Thetus, so let's not forget

that. Among Lawrence Olivier, who are the gods in Clash of the Titans? Burgess Meredith, Lawrence Olivier, Ursula Andres, Sean Phillips, Claire Bloom. It's a real

it's a real murderer's row flanking Harry Hamlin at the center of Clash of the Titans that was a movie we watched a lot that was a my dad that was a fave of my dad so my dad would always sit down

and we'd watch Clash of the Titans but it's a lot of like British stuff that doesn't really cross over in a major way in the 80s seemingly for Maggie Smith and I'm speaking completely out of my ass so feel free to correct me

but like movies No, no, no, no, no. One imagines she was probably doing more theater in the 80s. One imagines, yes, yes. Room With a View, her and Judy Dench as just two lady friends going about. It is a glimpse into our future, my friend. I love A Room With A View so much. I saw it for the first time only a few years ago. Tremendous movie. She's sort of the, she's not like the loser of that movie, but she is kind of like a, you know, like everything she tries to do to help her.

niece just does not work. Cousin? niece. Cousin. Who's to say in these type of... Whatever. Everything she tries to do to try and guide Helena Bonham Carter to success does not work. And ultimately, everybody else has to be like, no, you're in love with this guy.

You're in love with... It's Julian Sands, right? The late Julian Sands. Yes. Yeah. What a great movie. You're right, though, about her and Judy Vinch in that one. I guess the first thing I would have seen Maggie Smith in, though, would have been the year before Sister Act when she is old Wendy in Hook. Yes.

She's old Wendy. I think it's Gwyneth Paltrow is Young Wendy. Yes. That's a movie that I had no idea critics hated so much when I first saw that movie. Like, that's a movie where that's another one where we taped it off of television and watched it constantly. We watched Hook so many times. I was like, Dustin Hoffman is giving one of the greatest performances I have ever seen in this movie. I loved it.

I had no idea then when I grew up and finally was like reading about these things that like Spielberg's worst movie, total disaster, almost derails Julia Roberts's career. Everybody hated it. It was, uh, I had some concept of the reception of this movie when I was a kid because I remember liking it as a kid and everyone else. else in the room being like, that sucked? Like adults or kids? Kids and adult. Really? Oh, I don't know.

I just know that my siblings and I loved it. Like, I remember one time asking if we could rent Hook and my mom being like, no. See, your mom was plugged into the critic, the, the literati of it all. No, yeah, I had, it was such a surprise to me when I, growing up, finding out that Newsies and Hook were so reviled. And I was like, well, that's like half of my childhood view. was those two movies. Watching Hook as an adult. I can't get on board with hook revisionism.

What do you mean? Of people that are like, Hook's actually a really great movie. It's not, but it's also not this... People just want to be revisionist about movies that are not... It's not this awful. I will still stick up for it in a little bit and just say it's not this awful thing that people say.

There's an energy to it. No, no, no. It's kind of, I mean, like, there's things about it that are really fascinating. I think for these type of, adventure movies for children. It's one of the best looking of them. It's one of the most imaginative. You know, it's not like tire spinning, like some of these, I don't know, Percy Jackson's, etc. I think people at the time were really, really annoyed that instead of being

a Peter Pan movie, it was about Robin Williams, an adult businessman who has a bad relationship with his kids and that it's like so much about like his kids or whatever like that never bothered me like that's you know you need to recreate the peter wendy john wendy michael john wendy michael john um uh you know aspect of it whatever whatever it's also a movie that's just like plays a man who gets put into the boo box and yeah the boo box yeah oh maybe we should be putting things in the boo box. Maybe this is Hook's lasting. That's our 20-24 thing. We're putting things we don't like in the boo-box. The in-out, so five minutes ago.

Yes. Out burn books. In the boo-box. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So five minutes ago, the shit list. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think Hook is just like one of those things that's so, maybe it's the Spielberg thing. Maybe it's a conglomeration of other things, but it's just like, this is too big for its own good. Like, why is Julia Roberts Tinkerbell? Why is Robin Williams, Peter Pan?

Yeah. Keep Dustin Hoffman as hook. I will be positive there. I like Dustin Hoffman as Hook. Keep Bob Hoskins because always keep Bob Hoskin. Yes. You going to a fantasy world of Neverland as, you know, let's say a teenager. Let's say you're the oldest of the kids, whatever, and you go.

into Neverland. And it's like, it's fun, but it's scary. And there's a man with a hook. And, like, there's, you know, the boys who can fly and everybody's running around. And then who catches your eye? But Bob Hoskins as Smee, and you just spend the whole movie, like, with hearts or in your eyes. And you're just, like, so enamored of Bob Hoskins as Smee. And you're just like, you have a little schoolboy crush on Smee. I think that's adorable. I don't think that's quite how that went down. Fine. But, you know, there was already Eddie Valiant. What more do you mean? Well, but Eddie Valiant is a sexual dynamo. Like, Smee is just like, you know. He wears a tie without a shirt.

I mean, it does. Yeah. Sex. That's our first, this had Oscar was merch t-shirt, is Eddie Valiant is a sexual dynamo. But again, it's copyrighted character. your information. But it's true. Anyway, Maggie Smith, all right, Maggie Smith in Sister Act. I think she gives a great performance. It is also, I think, a crucial, like, two turns of the dial away from the sort of the Maggie Smith stock character who we end up.

We have Maggie Smith in the, like, post-Hary Potter of it all, has two modes, like, one of which is Dowager Countess and the other of which. which is, uh, yeah, yeah, sisterhood. She's either like, like, sort of like, not body, but just sort of like, oh, like, well, you know, have us a drink. And then, uh, the other is like just any number of repetitions of Gosford Park, Dowager countess, you know, that whole kind of thing. I think in sister act, there's, you could, you, you're sort of tempted to put,

her into that prim sort of like, you know, um, stern box. And she sort of is, but like, she shows a lot of color in this, in this performance. I will forever, uh, have in my mind the way that she says boogie-woogie, uh, the way Maggie Smith pronouncing boogie-woogie is, uh, is so funny to me. She's very funny in a way that I don't think I laughed at anything she said as a kid seeing this movie. But watching it now, She is actually very funny and very shady, but it's not quite the Downton Abbey. Right, right, right. And it's also like, that's kind of your emotional arc of the movie, too, is her and Sister Mary Clarence sort of finally getting on the same page by the end.

One thing I never noticed until I watched it this time is the part where they just give their like, I think they had just done like my God or whatever at the, at the mass. and the Monsignor comes to tell them, or no, she comes to tell them that the Pope is coming to visit, and she says, well, now that it's the Pope, I think it's probably prudent to go back to a more traditional style of singing. We don't want to, you know, be so extravagant for the Pope and Mary Clarence's life, but he's only coming because we are doing it differently, so why would we change it? up. And so Mother Superior calls for a vote. And as soon as she does that, Mary Clarence sort of like her eyes get downcast. And she's almost like, don't do this. Because like Mary Clarence knows how this vote's going to go. And Mary Clarence does not relish, like, shoving it in Mother Superior's face that she's sort of won the loyalty of these nuns away. It's like, it's a remarkably, like, emotionally complex little scene that you don't pick up on when you're like watching it as a kid. But now you watch it just like, oh,

she does not want this woman to realize how much she's lost her convent in this moment. And she knows if she calls for a vote, that's what's going to happen. And she's like, she's not, Mary Clarence is sort of sad in that moment to have to be, you know, the person who has taken the loyalty of these nuns away from her. Like, not to get, like, serious about it, but like, it's, it's a, it's a good moment. It's a, it's a solid moment. This is a well put together. For a movie that could be a, just. just a stupid comedy.

Yeah. Can we talk about... I don't think this ever veers into that territory of being dumb. Yeah. Can we talk about the indomitable trio that is Kathy and Jimmy, Wendy McKenna, and Mary Wicks in this movie? I mean, Mary Wicks, uh, maybe my favorite of the three, I do have to confess. Oh.

But... If you know me at all, you know that Mary Wicks is by far my favorite of the three. I love her so much. Good, good, good. Then I can say that without shame or fear of you yelling at me for not. No. The other two. No.

Mary Wicks, who would also, who is such a, so good at being part of a trio, she would become one of the trio of gargoyles and hunchback of Notre Dame. Oh, shit. Look at that. Yeah. That's fantastic. It's her Jason Alexander and Leonard Nimoy or something? Wait. I know it's Jason.

I knew it was Jason Alexander. I didn't know about Leonard Nimoy. Look that one out. It might be someone like a Leonard Nimoy. That's amazing, first of all. Hold, please. Mm-hmm. uh no i fucking love mary wicks are you kidding me she's mary wicks who's known for is both sister act movies hunchback of notre dame and white christmas i challenge you to name a better known for

um i'm just going through her um awards tab which is sadly tragically lacking um she was nominated for an american comedy award for this performance in sister act as sister mary lazarus and then she is a one Prime Time Emmy nominee in 1962 for her supporting performance in something called The Gertrude Berg Show. The log line for which says, A middle-aged widow enrolls in college as a freshman when her children are grown up and her experience of life outside academia together with her gentle humor and emotional dignity prove an invaluable asset to the student's young minds. Gertrude Berg. I don't know who Gertrude Berg was,

but clearly she carried this show to 26 whole episodes. So good for Gertrude, I will say. Nobody else...

Oh, Marion Loss was in her. It was a release after she died. It was posthumous. What was? Her performance in... Uh, a hunchback. It's Charles Kimbrough, not Leonard. Why did I think it was Leonard Nimoy? Does Leonard Nimoy have a weird Disney credit somewhere like this where he plays something like a garquil?

It's possible. So hunchback was 96. She was, uh, Mary Wicks also played Aunt March in the 1994 little women, the role that Merrill Street plays in the Greta Gerwig version. white Christmas You know what's funny is I don't know if I've ever seen White Christmas all the way through I know I've seen like scenes from White Christmas Maybe you need to watch it today I was going to say like before Monday

I've got to watch White Christmas Maybe that's the plan And watch Queen Mary Wicks in that movie She is The line that I wrote down And I could have written a bunch Is very early on Before she's sort of like

become like she's before she's defrosted towards sister Mary Clarence when they're they're talking about their all of their experiences and when they got the call and Mary Clarence is sort of like weaving this like bullshit detail about at her old convent or whatever and Mary Lassar has just talks about her old convent in Vancouver where they were outside all the time and Canadian queen and and Kathy and Jimmy's like Oh, that must have been lovely. And he just goes, it was hell on earth. I loved it.

And it's just the perfect Mary Wicksline reading. But everything, first of all, an absolutely perfect sequence of scenes is the one that starts when Mary Clarence enters the choir room for the first time. And that whole scene where she, like, teaches them, like, you know, Alto's here. and bass is here and Sopranos here. Alma, check your battery. A with an attitude. Kathy and Jimmy blowing

the windows out of the place with her high note. All of that is so perfect, but it's like anchored by Mary Wicks being like totally betrayed where she's just like, this is mutiny. Well, it serves an interesting counterpoint to Mother Superior

who, you know, Sister Mary Lazarus, who is not on board with having, with like losing the room. basically, but then can realize that it's better for the collective, and then she becomes essentially an enthusiastic assistant. Well, and I love how

Mary Clarence wins her over by appealing to her love for hard work and discipline. She's just like, we got to whip these ladies into shape, and she's like, yeah, they're wet behind the ears. It's so good, and I also love how much, you know,

nuns are, of course, take a vow of obedience, and And how much all of the other nuns are like, please help us out. We're so terrible. Like, please, anything you could do would be, we're awful. It takes one rehearsal for them to become the slaying sensation. That is the other thing. It's just like it is.

It's one rehearsal. And then the next thing we know, they're in church. And they're, you know, whipping up a funky hell, holy queen. Which not only includes girl group vocalization. but also like a little bit of like a Latin rap breakdown, not quite rap, but you know what I mean? Where they're just like, mat, ta, marat, da, da, da, it's like, it's so good. It's so good. It lowers in the youths straight off the street.

The children are outside and they're like, what's that sound? They're drawn. We must go see. Okay, so maybe I misspoke when I said that there's nothing about this movie that is dumb comedy because that's pretty stupid, but it is. But look at the, look at the results. Look at the material. Look at the material.

How could you do this? This was the first thing I'd ever seen Kathy and Jimmy in. She got like the breakthrough star treatment in the media, like, definitely. Like, it was definitely. And she was somebody who was like plugging away in comedy and like, you know, sketch comedy forever. She was, was it, is it Mo Gaffney who, Kathy and Mo, right? That was her, like, there was their comedy duo, her and Mo Gaffney. Mo Gaffney from, among other things, absolutely fabulous.

We're like a comedy duo in the 1980s and into the early 90s. And this was Kathy's first big break in the movies. And it's so funny because it's like it's very much different from her comedic persona throughout the rest of her career. She's a little bit more, you know, down-to-earth sardonic, you know, sort of like... I don't know. Kind of like, I've seen her in a lot of mom roles recently, which is, you know, only right and correct. But her role in sister act, the unbelievable cheeriness of this woman, where she's like, almost not even a person so much as like a puppy. You know what I mean?

She's just like, it's that levels of. Mary Patrick say where she comes from because I'm like, this bitch is from the Midwest. I was going to say this is a, she doesn't have a Minnesota accent, but it feels very like upper Midwest. The scene where they follow Sister Mary Clarence into the bar, which also is tremendous, where, like, Whoopi is in full, like, she's strutton into that bar. She knows that, like, she's intimidating everybody because they're all weirded out that a nun is in here. She takes the guy by his ear to get him to put his feet off of that. She, like, semi-flirts with the guy at the jukebox, but then, like, shoots him down. and she's like, you don't got any rhythm.

And then orders a Coke at the bar. And then the other two, Sister Mary Patrick and Sister Mary Robert, follow her into the bar. And Sister Mary Robert is, of course, very meek. And Sister Mary Patrick is literally just like, this is so much fun. She's got one coin to spare, and she spends it on gravy. Which, and then she dances. Give me gravy tonight. And then she just, like, dances with the one girl who's at the bar, and it's just like, it's so charming.

It's so wonderful. It's a miracle that that character is not annoying. It is a miracle that she's not annoying, but she really isn't, and I think credit to Kathy and Jimmy for that. 100%. She has so many, when they're in Reno and they're all, and like, I am only human, the site of a bunch of nuns scurrying through a casino in Reno is so funny to me. It's just funny.

But she's also like, when they're like, have you seen this one, brother? She's like, have you seen a nun? And it's like, she's like Carmelite Nun. She's dressed up like us. Like she's, she's just like, all of those little asides are so funny. The smile she gives when, when Whoopie's like, can I get an A? And then they give the disjointed A and she's the one who like, like, belts it out of the ballpark. And then Whoopi sort of like double takes and then looks back to her.

And the smile on Kathy and Jimmy's face is so big and unabashed. And like, but like, childlike, it's so funny where she's just like the cat that egg at the canary and she like couldn't like, oh my God, it's so great. Can't say. A woman with so much niceness to spare. She was basically biologically forced to become a nun. And then great comedy choice. During the CNC music factory scene, you mentioned that like she's, you know, she's breaking down. She's dancing.

She's twerking. It's also like, I mean, whatever. Sometimes I'm an easy cell. But, like, this thing of just like, oh, they're going out into the community, they're meeting people, they're improving things, they're painting walls, they're offering, you know, they're, you know, doing food drives and whatnot. And just like, all these things were just like, yes, like, if you're going to, you know, bother to be a religious order and, like, sacrifice, you know, your life to the glory of whatever of God. Like, yeah, like, live in service for people. You know what I mean? Like, like, do good work. Sometimes that includes white girl twerking. Sometimes it includes white girls twerking. Sometimes it includes turning a girl group songs into little skits before you sing them, where you say, hail, girls, hail Mary. That guy over there.

They say he's really weird. It's so funny. It's so funny. Not him. He's something. For us, he's always there. It's great. It's tremendous movie.

All right, wait, I want to dip into my notes a little bit, not that we're at the end quite yet, but, um... While you do that, let's pull up, let's talk about the MTV Movie Awards. Let's do it. Let's do it. That Kathy Nijimmy was a breakthrough performance nominee. She loses to Marissa Tomey and my cousin Vinny. Yes. Right.

With the exception of Whitney Houston and the Bodyguard, these are all comedy performances. It's Hollyberry and Boomerang. We were kind of in a golden age of comedies. Like, we were in a golden age of mainstream comedies in the 90s. We really were. And Rosie O'Donnell for a leak of their own, can you imagine the taste in this category, can you imagine an MTV movie award category with this much taste anymore? No, I can't. And it's taste on like multiple levels, right? Where it's like obviously like they're going to latch on to the glamour of a Halliberry and Boomerang or whatever. And but like Kathy and Jimmy and Rosie O'Donnell, who are these very, you know, like character actresses, who are not, like, they're not MTV girls to put it in a different way.

You know what I mean? Like, they're, and it takes a discerning palette, I think, to be able to appreciate what they're bringing to the table when you're also trying to be cool as MTV always was, you know what I mean, and trying to be a tastemaker. And I think this is why I talk sometimes in perhaps overly reverent tones about the MTV. of the 90s where, like, they took their cultural tastemaker position seriously and in a lot of ways. And I think

that's reflected in that. Rose O'Donnell and the League of their own, by the way, underrated performance. The part where she's on the bus... As is Madonna. The part where they're on the bus, yes, true. Well, Madonna saying, oops, my bosoms come flying out is so fucking funny. It's such a well-delivered line.

But the scene where Rosie O'Donnell is on the bus and she's talking about how she's got the the guy she's engaged to, and she's like, he's not much to look at, but at least he's, you know, got no prospects and treats me bad, like, that kind of a thing. And it's just like, and it's, you know, she's sort of coming to some realizations about, you know, that she deserves better. And, and yet also, there's, she's another one who has great asides in that movie where she's just like, where she's like, where she's like yelling at Jimmy, like all the, they're all like rabble, rabble, rabbling about, and she's just like yelling at Jimmy Dugan for being a drunk, or she yells at Kit for, you know, giving her shit. It's, I don't know. We'll have to eventually do League of their own.

We really will. Maybe for the summer, I don't know. Can I shout out my girl, Ellen Albertini Dow, who, um, what's her big line? What's her big line in, um, in the song where she's, uh, oh, we are, when it comes to being happy and then they kind of We are! I love her so much. Listen to our episode on 54 for our ode to Ellen Albertini Dow, the rap and granny from the wedding singer, of course. Also, I don't know the actress's name, but when they're going through the casino and Reno, looking for Mary Clarence, and they come upon Sister Mary Ignatius, who has just hit the jackpot in the nickel slots, is... No. Funny, the look on her face where she's just like, like, sorry, but also, like, and the money's, like, currently, like, paying off. I love it. Simple, again, I'm a man of simple pleasures. Should we talk about Harvey Keitel in this movie? It's weird that you have absolutely nothing. It's weird that Harvey Keitel is in this movie and you have nothing to say. Yeah. Better about him. It's a better performance than his one singular Oscar nomination in Buxie.

that's what we can say. He doesn't, he's just like, it's a very stock character. It is, there's not a lot of dimension to him. It's interesting that Harvey Kytel agreed to do this role. Yes, it is. Because, truly why. Like, he could have been played by either of his two goons that he has. Yes, absolutely.

Absolutely. Or like any number of. Though I guess, you know, Whoopie's having an affair with him. So we got to believe that he's kind of sexy and appealing. Yeah. I guess Harvey Kytel. Yeah. I hear that.

I mean Harvey Kytel couldn't have worked longer than a week on this movie. Also true. I'm trying to think of like what is, where is this movie in proximity to like bad lieutenant? Before. Is it before? Definitely before. Um, hold on. If it's before.

It's the same year as bad lieutenant. Fuck. Okay. And reservoir dogs. All right. That's a year, right? Harri. Oh, does.

He follows up his Oscar. nomination for Bugsie with Reservoir Dogs, Bad Lieutenant, and Sister Act. And then the next year is the piano. So, like, we're in a real interesting, actually, the most interesting sector of Harvey Kyle's career and smack in the middle of it is this weirdo-nothing performance in Sister Act. Amazing. Amazing. God love it. Also nominated at the MTV Movie Awards, Whoopi is nominated for comedic performance. loses to Robin Williams

in Aladdin, which... Yeah, I get it. It's really interesting. Nominated for female performance loses to Sharon Stone for basic instinct. That's probably right. You know what I mean?

That's probably right. You know, the fact that this movie was nominated by the MTV set is cool in and of itself. So we'll be happy that Whippy said. But it's also a reflection of just like just how pervasively mainstream this movie was. She won a kid's choice award for this movie.

Like, you know, like I was saying earlier, it's not a four-quadrant movie. It's like a 1,000 quadrant movie. This movie appeals to everybody. Everybody. Everybody. Um, uh, what else? What else? What else?

I want to talk about Mark Shaman for a second, who does the score here. One of his earlier score is it comes the year before his first Oscar nomination, which he gets for Sleepless in Seattle. It's a score that you so much when you think about the music in this movie, of course, you think of the songs, right? The religious songs, the Motown songs, the ones that combine them both together. But, like, all those scenes where she's, like, running away from the goons or whatever, and it's like that, like, adventure music or whatever, it's just like, it's not, like, reinventing the wheel or anything like that. but it's like, it's this very, like, recognizable score. Up until this point, he had been building this, like, really good roster of scores, where he does, when Harry met Sally, misery, it's like the Rob Reiner's, right?

Mm-hmm. That city slickers also, the Adams family, a few good men is the same year as, as Sister Act. And, of course, this was the year that kind of inspired this year and, and, 1994, because what's the first year of the split score category? Is it 95? I think it's, I think it's 93, because I think it's the year of Pocahontas. Well, Pocahontas was 95. So, yeah. But like, the dominance of Aladdin and then subsequently the Lion King in the score category, excuse me, in the music category. was what inspired the Oscars to be like, well, let's do a comedy score and a drama score so that something else has a chance to win because you were sort of steering down the barrel of, and ironically, like, it wouldn't really happen after that, but like they were sort of assuming that like every time Disney releases a movie, it's going to win best song and best score. Like that's just sort of, you know, that's the future we have laid out for ourselves.

And ultimately, in 95, they split the category between – sorry. Oh, I'm looking at the wrong one. I'm like, why is this not showing it for me? It's because I'm looking at the goddamn Golden Globes. The Golden Globes never split their score category to their detriment. All right, so. Yeah, what derange score nominees would we have if the Globes had two score? I'm saying. I'm saying. So, all right. Anyway, 95. All right. Yeah. So 95 is the first year that they separate a dramatic score and musical or comedy score. It only lasts for one, two, three, four years. But it's a real interesting four years. It's a lot of nominations for Randy Newman. I'll tell you that much. It's a lot of nominations for Danny Elfman, which is fine, which is good. And you get a bunch of Shaman nominations there,

That's when he's nominated for the American president. That's when he's nominated for the First Wives Club. That's when he's nominated for Patch Adams. Okay, but still. But my question to you, when we were getting ready to prepare this episode, was, what do we imagine that a 1992 original score category looks like if it's a split between drama and comedy year, if they had instituted it at this point.

So your Oscar nominees that year were Aladdin for Alan Mencken wins. So that's in comedy. Basic Instinct is nominated for Jerry Goldsmith. That's a drama. John Barry for Chaplin. That's drama. Richard Robbins for Howard's End. That's drama.

Mark Isham for a river runs through it. That's drama. So we need one more drama nominee and four more comedy nominees. I think one of the comedy nominees would actually be a league of their own. I mean, yes, I think that's true. Hans Zimmer's score for League of Their Own, wonderful score. I think other comedies you're looking like, I wonder if they categorize sneakers as a comedy. It's sort of a like Adventure Caper.

If they do, James Horner's score for sneakers is one of my favorites. It's so, so, so good. If they categorize it as a drama, then throw it in drama. But I think you could probably get away with calling Sneakers a comedy. I forget how much original music is in Unforgiven, but as the Best Picture winner, it seems easy, if lazy, to put that in there. I would also hope, I'm pretty sure it's Terrence Blanchard, obviously, attached to Malcolm X. Yes, Terence Blanchard for Malcolm X is a very good one. I also feel like this is a way to get, it's a little bit of a cheat, but to nominate Angelo Bada Lamenti for Twin

Peaks Firewalk with me. And that movie was so reviled at the time. Oh, I'm not talking about like would have, but in terms of just like... Oh, you're saying what would you advocate for? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I would advocate for, you know, Alan Silvestri for Death Becomes Her. What else? Philip Glass for Candyman would have never happened. I would advocate for Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Who was that? Oh, fuck, yeah. Good call. Good call. Philip Glass for Candyman. And that's conceivable too because Bram Stoker's Dracula is a multiple Oscar winner that it could have been nominated. Definitely. Comedy, though. I wonder if Toys would be in there. Oh, maybe.

As reviled as that is, you know, that is an Oscar nominee. It is an Oscar nominee. I remember it having a lot of music to it. Yeah. Yeah, what are the other, like, comedies that get nominated in any of the craft categories that year? That's an interesting. Yeah, Toys was nominated. for art direction.

I suppose there would be Enchanted April. Sure, yes. I think that's probably true. Who does the score for Enchanted April? That is Richard Rodney Bennett. That would make a lot of sense. I could see Death Becomes her getting a nomination for Alan Silvestri. Sure.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. In visual effects. But it's just interesting to imagine that out. I think there are some... Here's maybe a more succinct. hypothetical, but one that I think would be interesting.

Another defunct category is the song score category when they used to have full, this is how Purple Rain has an Oscar. Right, right, right, right. Is this how Yantel has an Oscar? Yeah. Yeah.

Would Sister Act win or would the bodyguard win? I would guess probably the bodyguard. The Bodyguard was such a successful soundtrack, yeah. Well, no, because that category, because there were some years where it was just three, I think Purple Rain won is just a nomination of three. It would be Aladdin, the Bodyguard, and Sister Act nominated together. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And Sister Act probably then wouldn't stand a chance, but we would be... It would be another Aladdin Oscar, almost certainly. Which is probably why they didn't feel the need to bring that category back. I also want to mention one of the great Oscar Snub. God, if we do, when we do an addendum to 100 snubs, I got to remember this one, the score for Last of the Mohicans, the Trevor Jones, Randy Edelman score for Last of the Mohicans was somehow, it was nominated by the Globes, but it was not nominated by the Academy, which is insane to me because it's such a good score. Also, former this had Oscar buzz film 1492 Conquest of Paradise was a Globe nominee for the Vangelis score. score that year. Go Vangelis.

What other ones in score have I not mentioned? Some of these are dramas. I mean, wouldn't be shocked if John Williams got a nomination for far and away. James Horner also had a great score. God, in the same year, James Horner had Patriot games and sneakers, two of, I think, some of the most definitive scores. And then the next year, he was Pelican Brief, right?

We talked about that when we did our Pelican Bulls episode. Just killing it left and right, man. What a great screen. Should we move on to the IMDB game? Why don't we? Why don't you let our listeners know what the IMDB game is? All right. So every week we end our episodes with the IMDB game

where we challenge each other with an actor or actress to try to guess the top four titles that IMDB says they are most known for. If any of those titles are television, voice-only performances, or non-acting credits, we mention that up front. After two wrong guesses, we get the remaining title. release years as a clue. If that's not enough, it just becomes a free-for-all of hints. Sure does. That is the I-N-D game. All right. Joe is our leader this episode. Would you like to give her guests first?

Well, I would like to give first, I feel like. All right. So, as stated, I am of the resolute opinion that Sister Act is a better movie than Sister X-2. However, you did mention the salient fact that Sister Act 2 is a movie about going to Nationals. And I do have to give her credit for that because I do love that. One of the stars of Sister Act 2 Back in the Habit, we all remember Lauren Hill, we all obviously talk about

you know... Jennifer Scare quotes Love Hewitt. Well, the way to steal my thunder because the IMDB challenge I'm giving you is Jennifer Love Hewitt. Ah, fabulous, fabulous. Fabulous. I was, of course, obsessed with her in my 12 years. I know what you did last summer.

Wait, I just, you totally glitched out for me. Why don't we try that? You did, too. Let's do a count off to be safe. Okay. One. Two. Three.

Four. Five. I think there is still a small delay, so. We'll deal with it. Yeah. Oh, should I, I'll probably you down. Yeah, you go for it. Say what you were saying.

Okay. Jennifer Love Hewitt, no television. No television. television, which she's had multiple shows. Party of five, Ghost Whisperer. But she's, yeah, she had Ghost Whisperer. Was she Globe nominated for Ghost Whisperer?

Would not surprise me. Okay, so I know what you did last summer. Correct. Can't hardly wait. No, incorrect. I was so surprised. Yowie, whoa, no, can't hardly wait. I know.

I still know what you did last summer. Correct. Okay, so, what was her rom-com that came shortly after then? Because no... Oh, Heartbreakers? Heartbreakers. Her and Sigourney. I don't believe that Can't Hardly Wait isn't there.

It's kind of surprising that Heartbreakers hasn't been turned into a musical by now. I mean, it basically kind of is... No, but I mean like a stage. I should rewatch Heartbreakers. There's a lot of, um, there's a lot of, you know, yeah, uh, gays that stand for them. Yes, it's true. Same. I know it's right there.

I mean, like, it's such a short window of time when things would be showing up on a known for for her. Correct. Unless, I mean, it could be, is it Cister Act 2? No, it's not Cisterck 2. All right. So that's two strikes. So you're remaining.

year is 2002. Okay, so this is in that time. I know what you did last summer is 98, as I believe Can't Hardly Wait is... The first I know what you did last summer is 97. Oh, 97. Right, because they rushed that movie because Scream did so well. Yes, yes. I can't believe that I know what you did last summer was like, produced, went through post-production,

and came out in the span of like six months. If we're talking about the Jennifer Love Hewitt, like, movie career, it does span from, I know what you did last summer in 1997, to this movie in 2002. Mm-hmm. Even though nobody really... So it's after Heartbreakers. Yes. She's on the poster, but it's not a Jennifer Love Hewitt movie. And it's not a horror movie?

No. Is it a romantic movie? No. So it's a comedy. It is a type of comedy. Yeah. was she in a she's in the poster but it's not a rom-com though right no

yeah uh but it's a like it's a like blank slash comedy like it's a you know comedy with another genre uh attached a horror comedy nope an action comedy yes um which and her co-star is a male co-star right her male co-star is doing something on the poster and then she's sort of like set back with her arms crossed. Oh, it's the tuxedo? It is the tuxedo with Jackie Chan. Yes, she's making the very classic, I am a lady in a suit with my arms crossed because I am not impressed by your hands off Jackie Chan. I am not impressed and I do not condone your action. Exactly. The tuxedo is on her known for above. Can't Hardly Wait. I know. I suppose like at that point her name is above the title. She's second build. I would believe. that she gets an and credit in Can't Hardly Wait. She is on the poster for every single movie, though, in this run, right? Including also that movie that I've never seen called The Trojan War, where it's her and the guy from Boy Meets World, who she was dating at the time, the older brother from Boy Meets World, are in this, like, sex comedy called The Trojan War, because, of course, Trojan is a brand of condoms.

Get it. and that it's it's essentially the same plot as booty call actually which is I need to have sex but I don't have a condom so I have to go running around like the 90s were crazy for straight people man like um yeah like booty call it's it's all it's all predicated on how difficult it is to get a condom to get a condom like it's easier to get a condom than to get food literally duck into any gay bar and like find the nearest table and there is a bull condoms like just just get over at marlin wayans no who's in it's um booty call is uh jamie fox and tommy davidson right yes yes all right anyway for you i chose uh the star that sister act was originally supposed to be a vehicle for surprisingly we have never done bet midler we haven't all right what is the no television no voice get out of here okay the rose no bitch we are both losing our minds that the rose is not on here we love the rose beaches correct um okay okay so outrageous fortune no incorrect so your years are 1986 1986 1993 and 1996 96 is first wives club of course

Correct 93 is that what you said Yes Year after sister act 93 What is Bet doing So Beaches was a hit

Oh wait No is Hocus Pocus 93 Hocus Pocus is 93 Alright okay I am not a Hocus Pocus person I'm too old for Hocus Pocus I mean I was as a kid

and watching it as an adult, I cannot get behind. Yeah. Hocus pocus culture. Hocus pocus culture. We're overdoing it, gang. It's too much. All right. By the way, Adam Grossworth, if you're listening to this,

I know you're about to send me a giff from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend that says, All Citizens Must Watch Hocus Pocus. Know that I know that that is coming. Is the 1980s one down and out in Beverly Hills? No. She's in that, though, right? She's in that, though, right? Yes, she's the wife.

in that movie. Is it Ruthless People? It's Ruthless People. A movie that like... Routhless people being in there over both of her Oscar nomination. I know. You can see why For the Boys is not on there. For the boys, I should have thought of that, but yeah. I mean, motherfucker, the rose is like one of the greatest performances of

Alt. Ruthless People is one of those Video Factory, Blockbuster videotape cover movies for me that like I remember from browsing. And then I watched it one time and I'm like, this isn't the kind of funny that I like. That was like, that was not a That was not a movie pitched to young, to young me at the time.

So, all right. Good IMDB game. That was really fun. All right, Chris, excellent talk. Happy New Year. I love Sister Act. I'm glad we got to talk about this. Thank you to Eurochise for suggesting this.

And we'll have more patron selects all month long. We sure will. We absolutely will. And then maybe one in February because we still have one more on tough. We do. Listen, we're going to get them all out there. there. That is our episode, though. If you want more This Had Oscar Buzz, you can check out the Tumblr

at ThisHout. And that's our episode. If you want more This Had Oscar Buzz, you can check out the Tumblr at ThisHad OscarBuzz.com. You should also follow our Twitter account at Had underscore Oscar Buzz, our Instagram at This Had Oscar Buzz, and our Patreon at Patreon.com slash This Had Oscar Butz. Chris,

where can the listeners find more of you? You will follow him at all socials, crispy file. That is so obvious. I'm furious at you. That's the, that's perfect. God damn it. Goofy.

I am on Blue Sky and Letterboxed at Joe Reed, both of those places. We would like to thank Kyle Cummings for his fantastic artwork, Dave Gonzalez, and Gavin Muvius for their technical guidance. Taylor Cole for our theme music. Please remember, you can rate, like, and review us

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