This Had Oscar Buzz - 319 – Bend It Like Beckham (Patreon Selects)

Episode Date: December 2, 2024

We have another episode from one of our beloved sponsor tier patrons from Patreon, this time returning us to our beloved movie year 2003! After becoming a 2002 British megahit, Bend It Like Beckham launched in the US at Sundance before becoming an early 2003 summer crowdpleaser. Directed by Gurinder Chadha, the film follows Jess (Parminder Nagra) … Continue reading "319 – Bend It Like Beckham (Patreon Selects)"

What can we say except box office points for Moana, too? Did I send you that report that deadline did that apparently AMC's website had a queue? Yeah. Because there was so much demand for going to the movies. Yes. There's this really a record-breaking Thanksgiving weekend box office and certainly a return-to-form for the movies. as you mentioned in our, in our group chat, we don't want to hear anymore the movies are dead,

theatricalist dead stories for quite a while. If I see one of those stories because of one bad weekend this spring, I'm going to lose my mind. Right. No, it's absolutely true. What that says that what it took to get this kind of a box office weekend was snatching a Disney sequel out from the Jaws of Television and, you know, making a sequel to a 25-year-old, you know, movie and whatnot, whatever.

It's, you know what, the movies are back, baby, who cares? And maybe the most popular stage show of the past 20 years. Right, exactly. Globally speaking. But you know what? I mean, we have not defeated the IP Dragon, but as, and I say this is somebody who, as you know, is not a Marvel hater, but I think it is notable that we got this big huge weekend without a single superhero action movie.

Though I will also call out to all of those people who we doubted you for drafting Red One. Red One had a 2% drop this weekend and could get to 100 million. So I think considering that that movie is a giant lump of coal in your stocking. Sure, but this was sort of what I was envisioning. the health of the box. This is closer to what I was envisioning when I drafted it, which was this will probably play very well with families and, you know, and... Especially families who were maybe sold out for seeing Moana or Wichita.

Although, can you imagine how many concurrent screenings of Moana 2 are probably happening at multiplexes? Although, with Wicked and Gladiator there, probably not as many as you would get in a weekend where it had the box office to itself. But anyway, yeah, according to deadline, Moana 2 is going to cross $220 million domestic over the Thanksgiving weekend. That doesn't count international, which puts it up to like 360 something. But, of course, for movie fantasy league purposes, domestic only. So that's pretty good.

That Moana 2 essentially tops you out in terms of all of your box office bonus. is all in one weekend, which is pretty great. Plus you get the number one at the box office points, and you'll probably get that for the next. I'm trying to think. What do we think is the next movie that can bop Moana 2 off of the top of the charts?

Well, not Crave in the Hunter, but we'll see definitely Sonic 3 or Mufasa. The Mufasa is apparently struggling. But Sonic 3 seems, yeah. So probably until Sonic 3 is you'll be getting Moana 2 topping the box office, unless Wicked proves to be like, you know, far more resilient

and Moana 2 drops, you know, significantly more than Wicked, which I can see being possible. I can see Wicked, you know, performing pretty steadily throughout these next. People seem to really like Wicked and don't seem to like Moana 2. Well, that is true. But don't think that it's all box office points from here on out. This week, we've got a lot of awards points scenarios coming out. match uh yes yes various awards it's beginning for real zes this time gotham awards on monday tuesday is the new york film critics awards wednesday is the national board review and the

independent spirit awards so yes lots and lots of of points in addition to box office what couple other interesting things of note for box office um best christmas pageant ever continues to kind of rocket. It's, you know, top five box office or top six box office has cleared 30 million. Heretic and Heretic has already cleared $25 million, so it'll be getting that bonus. We live in time. If it doesn't clear $25 million by the end of this weekend, it will have come darn close, but I have a feeling it probably will clear the $25 million this weekend. So like, that's a sort of little engine that could, where it's sort of just been chugging along and tugging along, and it got you those bonus points for $25 million, which is pretty good.

Who's at the top of the leaderboard? Well, after the wicked gladiator, you know, point bonanza that we got last week, last week's leaderboard was topped off by Turnup the Strobe with 8778 points and a roster that included Wicked, Venom the Last Dance, Smile 2, Red 1, Joker, Folly Adieu, Heretic, Nickel Boys, and a complete unknown. So good futures for this weekend, obviously with Wicked and Red One still pulling in money. And good sort of look down the road. Like, you could see Nickel Boys picking up some awards and nominations this week.

This week, from what I understand it, the New York film critics really went for a complete unknown. This is sort of anecdotal. but, so I would not surprise to see, be surprised if perhaps we see a Timothy Sholome, best actor win out of there, who knows, or at least perhaps a runner-up. So that'll be very interesting. Second place on the leaderboard is a team called Day O the Dead with 825 points. They have both sides of the wicked gladiator coin, plus Venom Smile 2. Venom, Smile 2, Red 1, Best Christmas Pageant ever, and then Saturday Night and Nightbitch.

So that's a pretty good roster. That's pretty much a, like, what's happening right now with everything, like, the only thing it doesn't have is Moana 2. So it'll be instructive to see just how heavily the Moana 2 rosters come stomping down and sort of obliterating this current, this current configuration of the top of the charts. In the Gary's League, Chris, who do we got? Once again, leading. And once again, we will make you happy to our Patreon commenter, Monstro Thalblusisusu. Love it. Love it.

636 points for Monstro Thalblessasu with a roster that includes Gladiator 2, Venom, Smile 2, Joker. We Live in Time and Heretic, both of which, as I said, are getting bonus points for crossing 25 million. and then upcoming both Y2K and My Little Pet Cause, Lord of the Rings, War of the Rohirum. That movie better be good or else I'm going to be so disappointed. I don't think it will be. Shut up.

I think you're going to be, quote, unquote, so disappointed. Second place in the Gary's League. You have nothing to place that on besides the... It's tracking to single digits for its opening. Oh, well, yes, but I just mean in terms of, like, will I like it? They also kicked that can down the road. by like a full year. Yeah, well, whatever.

I could still like it. Second place in the Gary's League. What in Tar Nation? We love a holding on to a reference with both hands. And, you know, listen, some people are still not giving up the ghost on tar and tar puns. Monstro thoblidia Sue. Stop it. First of all, stop it.

Second of all, make that movie. What in Tarnation has a roster that includes Wicked Moana, too? so get, get, don't get comfortable in first place. Monster, thub with Sassizu, because here comes. What in Tarnation with those Moana 2 points. The only disappointing thing, well, a couple of disappointing things for what intarnation, is this is a roster that includes both the life of Chuck and flight risk, both of which were bumped to 2025 after these picks were made.

So, enjoy this brief moment in the sun, what in Tarnation? But Moana 2 is going to do it for a minute. So there we go. Anything else we want to say about the MFL, the Gary's League, before we kick it on over to this week's episode? I'm excited for this week to come. I'm excited to see what dollar, $2 buys might do very, very well at the Independent Spirit Awards and kick some chaos into the rankings. I will be interested to see what movies sort of take the lead early on in the documentary race. what the critics groups do with things like best first film and best foreign language film.

So these are where certain narratives can begin. As a Janet Planet drafter, I am also very curious to see what critics groups will be doing with first film prizes. Very good. All right, everybody, you can go check out your roster and everybody else's on the leaderboard at vulture.com slash movies dash league. see where you're at, see where the points are going to be coming from, and see what prizes you might win if you win this whole league. Talk to you soon. I'm from Canada water. Dick Pooh.

Juce had a talent that was something special. That was brilliant. Really good. Yeah, almost as good as a man. And a family that was something else. Famary, you must be very proud of your daughter. Not at all. And you three shouldn't encourage her. Girls aren't supposed to play, soccer.

My mom's never wanted me to play. You just can't take no for an answer. Whoops. Will you both back it in? I'm not going to give it up. All I'm saying is there is a reason why sporty spice is the only one of them without a boyfriend. Hello and welcome to the This Had Oscar Buzz podcast, the only podcast that knows that all cops are boy banders. 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 right stroppy cow. Chris Vial, hello, Chris. I thought she were going to call me a slag. Listen, we love British insults. We love British colloquialisms.

And I will, slag is good. I like stroppy. Strappy is a very, it just sounds fun. Sounds good. Talking about a movie where Archie Punjabi says Dyke. Took me a second to recognize You know Took me a second to recognize

Young Archie Punjabi in this role Even though I knew like in my head She slays in this movie She does kind of slay in this movie I'm interested to get into this movie with you Because this is a movie I had definitely seen at the time And I remember liking And watching it again this time

I'm like this is so early aughts I feel like in just the last few years I've really I've really become a lot better at sort of recognizing the aesthetic signatures of early aught stuff, and it just all seems bad. I did not realize it at the time, but like up until I'm going to say like, oh, four, even then, like, what, at what point in the odds do you feel like things stop seeming so? because I feel like this is a movie that feels very desperate to feel cool. It almost feels a little more 1999 or like 2000. 1999 is better than 2000.

It feels more 2000 than 2002, 2003. At what point to the 2000s? Stop feeling late 90s. Yeah. It feels just pre-digital. Like I thought so much about song clips. You know those little plastic song clips. song clip things that you could listen to baby one more time in this little tiny fake

MP3 player you know they were the very pre-digital they were the natural successors to oh what were they I had I there there were these little like um square little boxes that you could buy little cartridges that had like two songs on them and you put them in what the fuck were they called if anybody remembers it's like a game boy It was a gay boy, but for songs, but for like, and if you remember what these were called, please a comment and let us know. I think it's song clips. No, this was before that. This was like hot something or like hot rocks, maybe.

Maybe it was called hot rocks. But anyway, I remember having one with like the Bengals walk like an Egyptian and Manic Monday on it. So this was like a 90s thing. But this early aughts aesthetic feels very MTV making the video. It feels very sort of like later stage TRL. Like the movement in culture from 1995 to 2002 is like four different leaps and bounds. Because, like, 95, you still had, like, the tail end of alternative rock, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Whatever was still sort of like hanging around, smashing pumpkins had a big hit. Alonis's record was still very sort of like alt. Then by 97, 98, you had Spice Girls and Backstreet Boys and Hanson. And then by 99, you had Brittany and Christina in sync. And then also Limp Biscuit and, you know, all the, like, you know, rap rock stuff, and Eminem, you know. And then by 02, you had making the video, sort of these like these second and third wave pop acts, like your Jessica Simpsons and Mandy Moors.

And when was Destiny's Child would have been by this point? Yes. Yes, yes. Yes. Yes. No, no, no, part two. But I think you're also speaking of the headliners, because this movie that has 900 music cues in it. And half of them are Melsie.

Well, this is where I was going, because, like, it's also very TRL, but it is also a lot of Indian music, too, including a cover of Power of Love, which you know I screamed for. Of course. But, you know, it also is, this is a British film, so it's also British pop, too. You don't really get a lot of, like, Brit pop in there in terms of, like, O-A-Z. You don't know how many times I, like, and I know he's just had twins, so I can't, but, like, I wanted to text David Sims and be like, please explain X, Y, and Z of Bend It, like, Beckham to me. Like, I need to know more about, like, whatever music phenomenon was going on, whatever, Obviously, like, I know who David Beckham was. Sure.

But, like, it's different for us than it is for somebody who was in England at the time. But the thing about the music thing is that it is also coming from. And I know that apparently the music cues are slightly different in the American version than they are in the British version. Right's issues. Here we are. Yeah. But there's a techno element to it, too, that, like, never reached TRL, but truly was of the musical moment. Well, remember when, like, Madonna went techno or whatever, and we were sort of just like, oh, ray of light has a little, or went electronic, right? Electronica was the word that they used to describe ray of light.

And we were just like, a basement jack's music cue. Well, this is the thing is we were just sort of like, I guess that's what Madonna is going for. But you're right, is that like that kind of stuff was much, much more prevalent in England at the time, you know, prodigy sort of crossed over to the United States, but just a little bit. And then you're right. Those, your, your basement jacks, your, um, oh, God, who the hell else were there? But they were like, they would poke into the American marketplace a little bit, but not, not fully. They were, they were blue. What's the, Iful 65 or whatever?

Iful 65. Right? Remember? Yeah. Yes. Um, all of those. But like I had, you, I mean, you want to talk about, um, Kazah culture or Napster culture. that's what my entire Napster folder was full of,

is all of those, like, one hit, like, Blue Dabody, and fucking, well, this wasn't English, but, like, um, Bloodhound Gang and, um, just any kind of, like, one hit. You are brave saying that you love the Bloodhound Gang. I don't love the Bloodhound Gang, but I had, like, one song, that one song from the Bloodhound Gang. Um, one of my very favorite things that ever happened in New York was we were in a bar in Brooklyn. I think Katie was there. A bunch of us sort of, like, movie dorks were there. And Firewater Burns started playing and everybody lost their mind.

No, but they ended up doing like in the bar karaoke and Chris Rosen without looking at the monitor once was a note perfect bloodhound gang, The Bad Touch. And he just did the whole fucking song. Chris Brogan, come on this out Oscar Buzz, please. It was the most impressive thing I'd ever seen in my entire life. I believe it. I believe it. That man is a national treasure. So yes, this does all.

feel very and it's like this is it's clearly a movie making a real earnest attempt at youth culture and what I appreciated about it and like there was a lack of cynicism about it it didn't feel hello fellow young people you know it felt very organic even if it was you know really at 11 and I'd only ever seen piece I thought I'd seen this whole movie but I don't think I did and I've only seen pieces of it because I have a lot of female family members who were soccer players. So, of course, this was a moment. Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah. It reminded me very much of this was an era in my life, just sort of like immediately post

college, when we would like go out dancing a lot, you know what I mean, where we would just like go out to the bars and find the like clubbiest bar that you could find in this one strip in Buffalo. And we would just like go out and they would, you know, be playing. in Sierra and they would be playing, you know, Spice Girls remixes, you know, that kind of a thing. And multiple, multiple solo tracks by Spice, former Spice Girls in this movie. I did the Spice Girls broke up. They were broken up by O2. Well, when was the, that last, hold on, I'm going to look this up because you have a Victoria

Beckham song in this, you have a MLC song in this. What was Goodbye, my friend? That feels like it was. like late 2000 maybe no that was 98 okay so that was spice girl so forever which was their last album ironically which was the one with um oh god that was the one that ended with goodbye so that was 2000 um so spice up your life would have been on the spice world album i think i think it came out right after that movie we we forget the that the spice girls were a little bit of of a flash in the pan because they lived in this moment of world domination for like two years. But also they probably slept for two hours in that two years. See, Spice Up Your Life

came so much earlier than I remember it. Spice Up Your Life was released as a single in October of 97. Yes. Viva Forever was July of 98. Like they really were done by like by 2000. Like When the ball dropped into the new millennium, the spice girls were, like, mostly done. That's kind of incredible. So, yeah, so then, like, Jerry Hallowell's, look at me. Hold on. Now I want to look that one up, too. Because that one.

One of the indicators in my youth that I was definitely a burgeoning gay guy. It was all about Jerry Hallowell's. Look at me. Of course you were. Like, of course you were. So that one was UK number two, 1999. So that was May of 1999. So yes, everything about the Spice Girls is earlier than I think it was.

So I remember that video premiering on MTV and just being wrapped. Just, you know. Yes, yes. And I remember, like, in school, people were very divided over hating Jerry for breaking up the Spice Girls, even though they stayed together, and wanting to extra, you know, dump on it. And then, like, me and one girl being like, you're wrong. You're wrong. It's really fun.

If Look at Me happened, like, played at a bar that I was at right now, I would be on the floor. They would burn the building down. It would be great. People would lose their minds. My favorite thing about Look at Me was every interview that Jerry did about Look at Me, She had the same sort of like three or four sort of sound bites about it. And she would always, because like the, she kept having to defend the title of the song and sort of like, she couldn't just say like, it's ironic, right? She had to just be like, what I'm talking about is.

She had to explain irony. She was just like, all pop stars these days have to like take on a persona and I can be this type of girl or that kind of type of girl. But my line is I can do reality. And so even being like a real person is a persona and whatever, and it's just like, it's just very fun. I loved, I loved her so much. I loved all of them. I have such a soft spot for all of them, even though, like, I don't think you could ever really say that I was like a spice girl's fanatic or whatever. But like, they're a moment in time, right?

And the rare pop group where every single one of them was interesting. You never got that with my great despairs is that I never got to see the spice group. girls live and now it'll it'll just never happen if it did happen again i would be that 50 year old gay guy going to brussels or whatever to see i would be like the swifties i would be i would be that girl sobbing outside the stadium because she plays that one random song do you remember what jerry did a cover of its raining men yes so good yes and like uh i love that we've also come around to be to accepting that Melsie is the best singer of them. Well, even at the time, I feel like people were like, you know Melsie has the best voice.

I don't remember. I feel like, yeah. Well, I mean, again, I had a lot of female soccer players in my family. So, like, there was appreciation for sporty in my immediate environment. But, like, you would go to school and no one loved, no one loved sporty as much as, you know, the other ones. And, of course, I was the gay guy. So I was like, it's all about scary and ginger. So, okay, rank them then versus now.

What would you've ranked them then and how would you rank them now? I mean, sorry, but posh is dead last now. I have, no, that is, I'm sorry, that is not the case. We'll get to me, but you go first. I don't know if I, for how I felt about them then. Yeah. Ginger, scary, posh, sporty baby

I think I was exactly the same now I would be sporty hmm here's my question has Mel B

said weird things lately am I making that up probably but she kind of just pops off but I still love her you can't make me not love her I'm not going to make you not love her

I'm just saying like I don't want to be like Mel B is my number one and then have people be like, you know, she doesn't believe in vaccines. So, you know, I don't think it's that. I don't think it's that. I think it is, okay. I guess I think

sporty, scary, baby ginger posh now, that's where I'm at. See, I do have to say. What did Victoria she did that whole like video where she's like where be honest i liked that whole thing i thought

that's sure but the the non payoff of emma and melby being on the circle yes i am the person who will sit here on any netflix show and i am i am devoted to the circle the absolute scum at the bottom of the barrels I'll scrape it off and feed it to me. Num, num, num, num, num, I will still watch the circle. But it was a crestfallen kind of a thing where it was just like, oh, I was so excited. The gag was real when they were like Melby and Baby Spice, but like it didn't amount to anything. They just didn't pay off. They should have, like, went home first just to, like, do the stunt and let it go.

But it was boring. It's like, that's maybe my least favorite circle season. Put Jerry Hallowell on the Traders. Whether it's Traders U.K. or Traders U.S., I don't care. or on one of them. No, put Mel B on the traitors. Well, sure. But, like, Mel B does all of the reality shows.

I feel like Mel B has done dancing with stars. But, yeah, she knows how it works, and she would make it cool. But, like, I haven't seen Jerry in anything in forever. I want to see Jerry. Yeah, that's true. You know what I mean? Put all of the Spice Girls in the circle separately. Yes.

And make two of them, and make two of them the murderers. There's no murderer in the circle. Oh, sorry. You said the circle. the traitors. Yeah, make two of them traders and make the other three of them non-traders on the traders. Great. Love it. Right? I'm into it. Okay. Anyway, Bend it like Beckham. We got so far afield. Why are we talking about Bend at Lake Beckham, Chris? We have another episode chosen by one of our sponsor to your patrons over on the Patreon.

Thank you, Priyanka, for choosing this movie for us. And I do have to say, not only because we immediately start talking about 20-year-old pop music. Us? But thank you because this was a fun movie. I have qualms. We'll get into it. I have maybe significant qualms. Yeah.

I don't think it looks like. But I had a great time. This is like, you know, we can dunk on formula and I certainly do and will and will continue to do so. But like this is a type of formula that works that has gone away. We used to get regular movies in this. vein. And often they would just work. This movie just works. It's just a good time. Like, I could put this in front of my nieces and nephews now, and they would enjoy it. And like, I don't know. It's like, this is an AARP Movies for Grownups Best Intergenerational Film nominee. And like, truly, you could put this in front of any number of family members and you would satisfy grandma. And, and rascally nephew with this movie.

It's a good time. So what does Priyanka say to us? Priyanka, once again, thank you for choosing this episode. Thank you so much for supporting us. I kind of lit up when this was one of the selections just for what it is. But Priyanka shared their Oscar origin story. Here we go. in the outline. My Oscar origin story generally started with the Titanic Oscars, true for most people of my millennial age cohort. We have a millennial among us, Joe. We're happy. But another early awards moment for me would be the 2001 Oscars, the year where India's submission for Best Foreign Language Film, Ligon, made it to the final five nominee stage. Ligon was a huge hit in the Indian American community, at least in the tri-state area, and

All of a sudden, the whole Indian immigrant and Indian American community around me was tuning into the Oscars, just like I had already been doing. Priyanka, Ground Floor, we hope you educated everyone and got them all hype as well. Joe, do you remember this movie? I remember this movie making a lot of money and being like one of the dark courses for that category. Yeah. I remember it being one of the dark horses for that category. I don't specifically remember it making a lot of money, but it was like it was. I remember it being an indie hit.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I've never seen it. Yeah. I've never seen it. There was something to be said about wanting the award show of your family's new country to recognize the art of your generational motherland. And what that means about the self, but that's for a therapy session to unpack, probably. Sorry, the edible has hit. Priyanka, we support and endorse you. It's fitting then that my pick for the privilege of being discussed on the main feed was also a big hit with the Indian diaspora all over the world. favorite rewatchable of mine, Bent It Like Beckham.

It wasn't just a favorite film because it was depicted soccer, a sport that I love that was not as popular in America then, or because it was the first time I saw a brown girl as the protagonist of an English-speaking film, or even because it was the first time I saw a movie that spoke to the immigrant daughter experience in an English-speaking nation. All first, that are true. It was also just a really fun movie to watch and re-watch with my family and friends, And that's still true to this day. Put on any song from the soundtrack, and I'm taken back right to the early 2000s,

a times that's easy to be nostalgic for in our current era. And given my lifelong love of entertainment, the movie also gave a great cast of actors whose career I could keep charting, ER's Parmander Nagra, the good West Archie Punjabi, Bollywood Mainstay and Silver Lenings Playbook highlight Anompom Kare, Pride and Prejudice and Atonement, and Pirates of the Canes, Caribbean's Kira Knightley. I'm so thrilled to be able to hear Chris and Joe talk about this film and if its awards prospects could have materialized into something more. I know it'll be just as fun to hear the host of my favorite podcast talk about one of my favorite movies as it is to watch that movie time and time again.

Thanks to you both. Priyanka, thank you for all that love. That is so incredibly sweet and kind and your support has been very kind over on the Patreon. It's also valuable for us to, you know, white gays here to, you know, get a little bit of firsthand testimonial about this movie from somebody for whom it spoke to more personally. Yeah, absolutely. And I think, you know, that's helpful in the conversation for this movie that we're talking about because it is significant in that way. And it's like we could sit here and say that and, you know, as two white gay guys, but also. you know, you're just hearing it from us. So it's good to hear that from you too and for our

listeners to hear that from you. Yep. Um, for what this significance is. Because then otherwise, we feel like we're just talking at the, the, you know, that story rather than coming from our own experience. So thank you for sharing that with us, Priyanka. We hope you love this episode. And we have the rest of you love this episode. But this is just a hang out for the two of us in Priyanka. I'm always a little bit struck by the fact that India has not had more success in the international feature category, obviously. Especially considering they're, you know, alongside the American film industry, they are and China the largest film industries in the world. I wonder, because obviously, like, the Eurocentrism of that category at the Oscars is, you know, well known and has been sort of long discussed. I remember, sort of Kurosawa was a filmmaker.

Usually, you had to have these sort of like very identifiable filmmakers to break through from, you know, the East, say. So, you know, your Kurosawa, your Angli is that kind of a thing. I do wonder if the, you know, success and prominence of the Bollywood film industry engendered, not necessarily, like jealousy from the from the Oscars but a sense of like well they have their thing and we have our thing and you know they can you know they have an apparatus to sort of celebrate and honor their own which to me is a little bit sort of misguided about what you want the Oscars to be you know what I mean a little bit especially if you're going to have an international feature category a foreign language film category as it was called back then you know you want to welcome the whole world there. Well, in India's only had three nominations in the category before. They were nominated the first time they submitted with Mother India. Then there's Mira Nair, Salam, Bombay, and then, as Priyanka mentioned, Lagan. And it hasn't happened since LaGan. And obviously, you know, you had RR a few years back that was a major hit. A big hit. A major crossover sensation. And

ultimately won an Oscar, but not, wasn't submitted by the country. in the category because there was various political feelings about that film and what it was depicting. So that industry didn't get behind it. And like there's, of course, the whole conversation that's made all the more complex and interesting and actually feels like is getting to the mainstream of the conversation around this category this year around what is the value and what is the what is the nuance behind countries submitting one film to represent them? And of course, that makes it susceptible to not only just government perceptions and, you know, issues around various regimes not supporting certain types of political filmmaking. But also, you know, is it cutting certain movies off at the knees simply because there's, you know, are there. they're not going to be able to play in this category, where they may struggle in other categories, because it just wasn't the movie that was selected. And the movie we're talking about in a lot of ways this year is all we imagine as light. Yes. Which was an Indian-French co-production. Well, these are the issues with, and there are many of them, and like, you know, we can't go into all of them or else we'll be here all day, but it's a very, like, rich and

complex issue. I do feel like India is becoming sort of currently the poster child for the conflict between government interest and, you know, blocking certain kinds of films. I feel like Russia had really been the country for a while there, which was, you know, blocking certain movies that were critical of, you know, the established order in Russia. There's also Seed of the Sacred FIG this year, which is Germany's submission because it had a lot of German funding but is very much about the political climate in Iran. Right, right. Yeah, Iran is definitely one of those poster children for that as well. But I think also the fact that modern filmmaking in, you know, in the present day is a lot more multinational than it was. It is a lot more like, you know, it is not unusual to see movies that are co-operable. productions between countries or that, you know, are the filmmakers of one nationality, but the, you know, the story takes place in another, and maybe you filmed it in, or financed it in,

you know, in another country altogether. And apparently the selection committee has said, the Indian selection committee has said that, you know, when they were looking at their films, all we imagine was light was seen as to French for what they wanted to submit. And then, of course, France, you know, had it on its short list to almost be the selection, but they chose Amelia Perez, a movie that is not at all set in France and, you know, is about Mexican characters. And starring primarily American actors, you know what I mean, in the lead roles, in two of the three lead roles. But that's, this is sort of what I mean, and that, like, if you want to have a category that celebrates international films, is it getting...

untenable to place the, you know, so much of the power for what gets, you know, submitted and thus nominated in the hands of, you know, state, you know, state-run film boards, which have interests that really don't pertain at all to what the Oscars should care about. What is, what are the Oscars care? How much of all we imagine is light as French versus Indian when they're talking about. international feature when they just want to celebrate and submit, you know, movies outside of the American experience. Yeah. Yeah. And also, like, if we're going to keep awarding the country and not the filmmakers or the producers, because the award goes to the country. Right. That's, yes, which is anti-artist. And, you know, yeah. And, like, then, then if it's about celebrating, you know, global film production. and various nations, you know, film production, then why aren't we nominating more of one of the largest film production nations in the globe? Yeah.

You know, it's... I know. I know. All right. We are now well, well into this episode. So why don't you tell our wonderful listeners why they should be subscribing to our Patreon? And I will get ready to queue up your 60 second plot description. Listeners, you know you want to hang out with Priyanka and all of our other patrons over on our Patreon Turbulent Brilliance. And guess what? You can. For only $5 a month, what are you going to get besides a great community of wonderful film fans?

You're going to get two bonus episodes, including the first of which, which is our exceptions episodes. These drop the first Friday of every month. These are movies that fit that this had Oscar Buzz rubric, but may to score some Oscar nominations. No wins, though. We're doing no wins. No one. What type of movies have we talked about over there? Joe, we've talked about House of Gucci, Madonna's W.E., vanilla sky, the lovely bones, pleasant fill.

This month, the episode is not dropped yet as of this airing, but her rush on over. And this Friday, you'll hear us talking about Todd Haynes' four-time nominee, Far from Heaven. Far from heaven, far from the best picture category, far from winning any of war. And you will hear some healthy debate from Joe and I on that episode about its qualifications for what we do on the exceptions episodes. Second bonus episode is going to be the third Friday of the month. These are our excursion episodes. Deep dives into Oscar ephemera. We love to obsess about on this show.

We've done eFall movie preview flashbacks. We've watched and recapped old award shows. shows, including last month, we watched the 2003 Globes at which Benton, like Beckham, was nominated for Best Motion Picture Comedy or Musical. Exactly. We've talked about Hollywood Reporter roundtables, lots of other fun things. I will also say our second annual, this had Oscar buzz superlatives will be coming up soon. Yes.

We do our own silly little awards. Very excited. various silly categories across various precursors and we give the Gary's a free reign over what our best picture lineup is so be on the people's choice award lives on in the best had Oscar bus superlatives that's right so go sign up to this had Oscar buzz turbulent brilliance over at patreon.com slash this had Oscar buzz exactly all right back to bend it like Beckham the British film that got us all wrapped up about

international feature. You know what? We contain multitudes. It sure is. All right. We're talking like bend at like Beckham today. Directed by Gyrinder Chada, written by Paul Mayeda Berges, Goujit Bindra and Gorinda Chada, starring, Parminder Nagra, Kira, Kira Naitley,

Jonathan Rees-Myers, Archie Punjabi, Amit Chana, Apanam, sorry, Anam-Pam care, Shaheen Khan, and Juliette Stevenson. Did she get the end credit? Sure does. I missed that. You see it at the end.

You see it in the end credits. Yes. This was a Fox Searchlight production in the United States. It premiered in the UK. This was a movie back when you really could premiere movies far, far apart in the UK and the U.S. It was a, I feel like 28 days later, around this same time, was another one that was like existed in the U.S.

UK for almost a year before it came to the United States. I don't think there was quite as much of a gap between those two movies, but like, as Priyanka mentioned, this was a global hit, and the U.S. was one of the last countries to open this movie. So, premiered in the UK on

April 12, 2002. It did not premiere in the United States until March 12, 2003, so almost a full year. It's opening weekend in very, very limited release. It opened far, far down the list, but behind films like bringing down the house, Agent Cody Banks,

the hunted, Tears of the Sun, Chicago was still in the box office top five then. Bend it like Beckham continues to sort of amass screens and get a little bit more money and move up the chart and move up the chart. And finally, in its eighth week of release, it enters the United States top 10, at which point your box office is being dominated by X-Men 2, the Lizzie McGuire movie, identity, Anger Management, the Adam Sandler, Jack Nicholson movie, Anger Management, and Holes. Surprisingly, I've only seen two of those three movies in theaters, X-Men 2, and Identity.

I only saw Identity in theaters. Identity is a hoot. Identity is a fun time. It's junk. Identity is stupid. It's very stupid, but you know what? It's fun, but it's stupid. Yes. You know what? I'll take it.

All right. Chris, for you, I have my stopwatch at the ready. Would you like to give a 60-second plot description of, bend it like Beckham. It's a lot of plot. Let's see how much I can remember and get in there. I maybe should have pre-prepared this one. All right, but you're going to do it anyway, starting now. All right, so we're following Jess. She comes from a traditional Indian family in Britain. She loves soccer, and it's kind of somewhat handed down from her father who used to play soccer but was kicked out by his all-white group because of racism. And she enters secretly into playing in an all-girl soccer league, also known as football, because this is British.

She makes friends with Jules played by Kira Knightley. Meanwhile, they have a hot coach. They both have a crush on the hot coach. Jess's sister is getting married, and it's like this is not a prearranged marriage. This is a marriage out of love, so it's extra, like, volatile and meaningful, but like it could fall apart at any minute because either of the side's parents could say, nope, not happening. And guess what? That does happen because the other family sees Jess with Jules, mistakes Jules for a boy and thinks that they're kissing even though they were just friends who were

hugging. Meanwhile, that wedding falls apart. They go to, the team goes to Germany and there's a whole like breakup in the friendship because of their hot coach who really should not be talking to these girls this way at all in any circumstance. And so they're not friends for a while. the wedding gets back on, but then they become friends again, and there's a recruiter that's coming to watch their final game of the season, which just so happens to be the same day as the wedding. Meanwhile, Jules's parents think that she is a lesbian, even though she is not, and everything gets reconciled, but at the end, when both girls get a U.S. scholarship to go play soccer in the States, their coach and Jess do kind of end up in a long-distance relationship.

I have so many problems. The end. The end, 50 seconds over. Let's start with that then, because I do, let's sort of silo this way. It's my big problem with the movie. I mean, you know, for this type of movie, yes, there's fun in having a hot coach,

but they are still minors. But it's not like it's a high school team, though. It's just sort of, it's. It's like a private team. But that doesn't change the fact that he's like 24. Sure. And they're 17. Yeah.

There's a huge ick factor. And it also feels... I don't believe in it. Aside from the ick factor. I don't believe in the ick. I hate that. I hate... Gen Z has given us many awful things.

No, that's not what the ick means for Gen Z. The ick is when you're dating someone and they say something and you're like, oh, not going to work out. That's getting the ick. Yeah. And it's a super annoying cultural thing and I hate it. But that's not what I was saying. What I was saying is saying is.

is I was grossed out by this adult man flirting with teenagers in a situation where he is in a power dynamic don't love this movie doing it and on top of that even if the ickiness the grossness was not there I don't think this is a movie that needs a romance I'm so much more into this movie when it's about

Jess and the friendship and you know Jess's cultural identity just dealing with, you know, her traditional parents. And just like, there's less female friendship in this movie than I expected and less than I wanted. Yes. But when that stuff is there, I'm like, yes, I will watch this movie all day long. I think that was my dominant reaction to this movie was, is I remembered this movie as being like about this really great friendship.

And I'm like, the movie doesn't really concentrate on that at all, at all. And kind of, like, they're on the outs more than they're, you know, more than what we've invested in them as a pair of friends. And I loved all of the team stuff, like when they're in the locker room. And, of course, when they're sneaking Jess back to her sister's wedding, the whole team helping her get ready to, like, keep up this ruse. Like, loved those bits. I understand that you can't devote all of your time to the team because so much of the movie is about Jess and her family life. But I feel like my platonic ideal of a team sports movie is something like a League of the Rhone, where every single member of that team has some little bit of a personality,

even if it's fucking Ellen Sue being a beauty queen who can sing. And even if it's fucking Alice, you know, who's, is it Alice who won't wash her socks because they're on a winning streak or whatever? And she's the one who gets the big No, Dottie's the one who gets the big bruce Anyway, you don't quite get that in this movie But you do get that like pack of three girls That move together. It's almost like they're

You know, when you see those drag queens That have like the fake little dancers Inside them, it's like those three are never apart You never learn their names, you never see them individually But they're not even on the team Like I wanted much more of like the team building aspect so that you could root for them as well. I want to talk about the title for a second because that was one of those things that at the time people were like, oh, that's the

movie with the funny title, not because they didn't know who David Beckham was, because by this point he was a decently, you know, well-known crossover star. But people didn't understand what Bend it like Beckham meant, like, and that, you know, it was, you know, a soccer term. It was, you know, it's about, you know, him corner kicking or whatever. We should maybe say Americans didn't know what this friend said. Well, right, right, obviously. Because soccer here is, has been gaining in popularity. I'm surprised my husband, who is a soccer obsessive, did not.

Well, this is the thing is there's been this like 50 year plus long game of trying to get soccer to catch on in a, you know, among the sports. fans in America. I do feel like we have, we're certainly as progressed as we've ever been in this country. Every sort of World Cup, we kind of advance a little farther. And not America in the World Cup, but like Americans' interest in soccer, I feel like advances a little farther. I think the women's national team being so dominant for, you know, for a while has really helped in that regard. But back then, I was going to say women's soccer has done quite a bit in popularizing soccer in the States. That was sort of my number one aspect of, like, why would a movie like Bend at,

like Beckham have Oscar buzz? And one of the major things was, the 1999 Women's World Cup was, and I don't know how well you remember it being, you would have been in high school, I imagine. My dad was obsessed. The sports world was so, so, so into this. The Women's World Cup took place inside the United States. It was won by the United States, and this was the first time that, like, women's soccer took sort of prominence on a national stage like this. This was the one where it was the

shootout with, or it went to penalty kicks with China. Brandy Chastain makes the big save and, you know, takes off her jersey and, you know, is on the cover of Sports Illustrated or sports bra and whatever. And of course, like, of course, this, like, triumph of women's sports has to also have this, like, hand-wringing, like, you know, is it to, would she have made the cover of Sports Illustrated if she was not, you know, in her sports bra kind of a thing? And the degree to which, you know, sexuality and sexiness sort of, you know, plays, played into it at the time. But it was a big huge signpost on the way towards soccer in general and women's sports advancing in popularity. So by the time Bend at Lake Beckham comes out in the States, the 2003 World Cup is gearing up to start again in the United States, although the United States women's team did not triumph in that one. But soccer was at one of its periodic sort of apexes in the American imagination at the time, and especially women's soccer.

So this felt like a very sort of trendy, and not to say that necessarily pejoratively, but like a trendy film that had a big hook to it. And it's also British. So I think if this were an American movie, that was just sort of like a teen comedy about sports, it would have never been in. It would be treated like she's the man. Right. Right.

Yeah. But because this is British, it has a little bit of an exoticism to it that American awards. There is an audience here in America about fetishizing anything British because it's inherently nicer. Well, yeah. Yes. Or of higher quality. But also, this was the big Kira Knightley breakout. year where summer 2003, Pirates of the Caribbean hits, and it's the biggest fucking thing.

And expected to not really be a thing because the history of pirate movies at the box office is disaster. And it's a theme park. It's a theme park attraction as a movie. So it felt like a cash grab. And I don't think people were prepared for just how odd it was and how, you know, peculiar the performance was and how much kind of verve verbinsky puts into it and the music. And then Orlando Bloom was so hot coming off of the Lord of the Rings movies. He's, you know, we're two-thirds of the way through the Lord of the Rings movies. And then it's introducing Kira Knightley, who by this point, Bend it like Beckham has already opened in the state. So it's already like a year old in the UK. So her star is definitely on the rock.

and she would eventually also be in Love Actually at the end of the year. So this was like the big boom, boom, boom, here's your new, you know, British crossover star in Kira Knightley. Kind of surprised she didn't get, you know, an acting nomination somewhere because of this, because her star was so much on the rise, even though I don't think ultimately, you know, in a vacuum, the performance warrants it. But as soon as it's, you know, she is in a performance that warrants it with pride and prejudice, it does happen for her. Very true. Very true. Jules is a frustrating character. Yes.

I don't think we get, I think we both, we get too much of her to not expect her to be more of an interesting character, but we don't get enough of her to satisfy. Yeah. I mean, it is more Jess's story than Jules is. So I'm ultimately kind of fine with it. but I wish that there was more to her arc or more to the character detail than she's frustrated with her friend because they both have a crush on their coach.

Yeah, it seems a little a little bit reductive. They also, the movie also tries to parallel Jess's relationship with her family and her struggles with Jules and her family. And you see, it's a real education in like, in the ways in which the things that we got comedy from in the early odds that we wouldn't now, in ways, I think, both good and bad. I think there's a general sort of frowniness that we take now on any kind of jokes about

people's appearance. I think any kind of jokes about like Jules being flat-chested or whatever would just not fly these days. it would make you hate the mother too much. Any kind of jokes about how the mother is homophobic, but, like, in a funny way, wouldn't fly these days. I think it would make the mother to, you would need to have by the end of the movie that character really taken down a peg and really sort of punished for saying such things. And whereas in this movie, you can sort of, you know, take that, she's not. not admirable for those. But you can sort of like make fun of that character for being

closed-minded or, you know, or too hard on her daughter or too fixated on external appearances or whatever. And you can also have, they do have, they do have Jules give that line towards the end of like, and being a lesbian isn't even that big of a deal, mom or whatever. But she's like definitely still like the resolution to that is like, mom, you're so stupid. I'm not a I just have a short haircut. And her hair is not that short. Well, but that was the style.

That was a style at the time, right? Is she sort of like the short haircut, the trousers, right? The like, the polo shirts. And it was a particular style at the time. But I feel like a lot of that humor nowadays would require an equal and opposite number of sort of affirmation, which in some ways, is the sign of a healthier society that we understand that, like, that kind of stuff doesn't fly. But on another, on the other hand, I think that makes us feel a little bit more uptight about certain things.

Yeah. And I do think, you know, for that character, Jules' mom, I came away from it thinking, oh, that could have been so much worse, actually. It could have been a lot annoying, a lot more annoying. and I would kind of credit Juliette Stevenson's performance with that because the blueprint is there for her to be way more hysterical, the type of character we see commonly. And I think she kind of underplays the more hysteria over her daughter's potential queerness. Until she blows up at the wedding and is like,

get your lesbian feet out of my flip-flops or whatever. I will be saying that to you next time I see you. You know we're at four Juliette Steven. movies. We're only two away from... I was wondering how close we were. We're one away from Akira. Get your lesbian feet out of my ugly ass shoes.

But yeah, the parents in this movie are interesting because Jules' dad, played by Frank Harper, I was least interested in all of these parents because it's closer to the formula now that I'm just like, okay, this is what we're doing, where it's just like, cuddly dad to show you how supportive they are. Yeah. Whereas Jess' parents played by Anupam Kare and Shaheen Khan, I found to be way more interesting, especially Anupamkar, because he as the dad is, you know, you just don't really see. It's like usually parents in these type of movies, the, you know, disapproving parent is like. disapproving and like

one dimensional budge until the very end and there's some like heartwarming tear moment and he has a much more conflicted relationship with his daughter playing soccer because he has an actual character

for himself yeah like it feels more real and that it's like he does want to support his daughter he doesn't agree with this he had his own negative experience but it's not this super cliche thing of heartwarming cuddly dad who is nothing but you know approval and like i guess i'm kind of thinking of coda here as like the standard bearer for this now or like everything everywhere all at once where it's like we are very into having a cuddly dad moment and i would rather see you know

a more fully fleshed human being than awe isn't this nice doesn't this make you feel good about your own dad. And I don't know. It's like, especially in movies that are about the formula and about, you know, making you enjoy the formula. You can still have real people in them. And that's what makes those movies better. And I felt like the father-daughter relationship and this made this a better. Definitely. You're definitely right. I am adding cuddly dads to our eventual episode of Oops, All Chris's grievances. things that Chris is withering about. Yes.

Just like all Chris grudges and one of them is cuddly dads in cinema. It's not a grudge. It's not a grudge. But I do see it as an emerging trend that I think we could all ask more of. Yeah. I mean, it's become tropey. Because it's also like it's devolved or it has evolved from cuddly grandpa or like rascal grandpa who's actually cuddly, which is Alan Arkin in

Little Miss Sunshine, you know, this tropey thing that is not very deep. Yeah, yeah. Even though it's like, in the recent examples, you know, we have it within like a context

of, you know, Coda, the dad is deaf. So it's like you get complexity through that, but the actual father-daughter relationship, it's I feel like the thing we're supposed to be left with is, isn't that nice, sweet, and touching? Yeah.

Not, here's this full human being. I think also the fact that, I think you can, you can sketch, bend it like Beckham, onto a lot of other, you know, first generation immigrant, you know, stories of this type. I think of the TV show, Never Have I Ever, which I really, really loved, or Ms. Marvel, or even like the big sick, you know what I mean, like these kinds of things where... I think Olivia Coleman and Heartstopper is another example of not cuddly dad, but cuddly mom, where it's just like, okay, well, can we get a full person to? Sure.

But I think specifically of like the first generation immigrant stories where I feel like I've become very familiar with these beats. And in many ways, it's one of those things where like these are a shared experience for a lot of people for a reason in that, like, I think a lot of these experiences do sort of like dovetail with one another. So it becomes a, you know, a language in film and in television that people kind of understand. But within that, then you want to make your space for things to be specific and, you know, particularly, you know, unique. You know, how. however much you can find specificity within these stories that have a sort of universal truth to them or a, you know, sort of subculturally universal truth to them. And I think that's what this movie does with the dad character, you're right, much more so than the mom character who hits these very familiar beats of like, you know, you're going to embarrass us, you know, why do you want to do anything but honor your father and your mother, you know, these kinds of things.

but I think with the mom characters though there is while they are fitting in you know a rubric that we see often especially in this type of movie and like you know a coming of age movie if you want to call it that there's not a pressing on that cliche there's not they're not like going hard in the way that we've seen it in a way that you know it if you're hitting the cliche more it's going to obscure the well it also sort of gets into how the second generation then, or whatever, how the younger generation, you know, Jess and her sister, whose name is what's Archie Punjabi's character? Pinky. Pinky, of course, thank you. Who have to find their own way of sort of easing their way past

those restrictions that they can bang their head up against their parents, you know, for a time, but also they just need to be able to be like, all right, you sneak out and I'll cover for you. All right, you do this and you don't tell anybody, you know, that I'm doing this, whatever. And it's this very kind of like, we're going to, we may, you know, squabble at each other and, you know, be opposites and whatever, but we are also in this together in that we need to find ways to defy our parents without making it a big, huge, you know, blow up every single time. So, and that even feels like a, that's a, that's an, experience that I feel like is specific to first generation, you know, immigrant culture,

but also I think anybody who's had, who's lived with strict parents can find a little bit of a connection with that, which I feel like, again, you find, you find the bits of universal within the specific. And I like that. And I think also with this, this, this movie does a sibling dynamic really well to, even though Pinky's, Pinky's given more screen time than Pinky really has to do with the plot of this movie. Yes. They, you know, they can have that similar sibling experience. They experience their parents and they, you know, push the boundaries of their parents the same way.

That doesn't make them aligned all the time, you know, that they do have their own interest and those interests may be in conflict, I think is really interesting and, you know, good for the comedic dynamics of this movie. I also feel like on the other end of it, on the sports movie end of it, I think from our perspective as Americans, I think you sort of feel the Britishness in this movie in the fact that it doesn't really ever feel the need to hold its audience's hand when it comes to the sports stuff, when it comes to the soccer stuff, which I think is good in a way. But it also, I also feel like a movie that was more intensive within the team, I want to, I want to maybe know a little bit more about like, what are the dynamics of the team? Who's, who are the, who's good, who's, you know, maybe a liability, who's learning, who's, you know, how important is it for these players to have a rapport with one each one another? How, you know, when they're sort of passing the ball to each other or whether they're, you know, they have to sort of think as one out on the pitch or whatever. And I think we get a lot more of that if there's time made for it instead of a love story we don't need. Right, right. No, no, you're totally right. I think that's definitely much more my issue with the love story. And I also, in my memory, had kind of minimized that and that like, oh, right, this is like a momentary sort of snag between the girls. But ultimately, you also kind of don't ever quite

get what the relationship is between Jules and the coach, because, like, when she recruits Jess to the team, they seem fairly like, if not necessarily equals equals, because he's still the coach. But they're both sort of like taking leadership roles within the team to add people to the team and they sort of like, you know, talk to each other on a more sort of like level playing field, but you don't really get the sense of, I think that, you know, the Jewel's having a crush on him thing becomes convenient when the movie needs to drive a wedge in between these two and to sort of give Jules' mom a reason to misunderstand, you know, the fight that they're having. She thinks that their friendship breakup is a romantic breakup.

Yeah. I also kind of feel a little bit. And this is maybe a small quibble And not necessarily the movie's fault But I think If you don't have the romance And you can see more of the team That presents an opportunity

To provide some type of queer perspective Because it's Especially in a sports movie context And in a coming age movie context Where it's like The movie's version of presenting queerness Is not queerness Not being gay

How, first of all, how dare you? This is Tony Eresher, and Tony is a real one in this movie, and I love him. And I'm glad he gets that, like, oh, so fleeting. It felt very, like, it didn't feel like exclusively queer moment, like, in Beauty and the Beast, but, like, that moment at the wedding where, like, the guy on the dance floor sort of turns to him and gives him a little look. And I'm like, Tony's going to make out. This is great. I'm happy for Tony.

I like that. Tony is never as central as Tony feels. Like, every time that Tony shows up and is, you know, a key player in the scene, it's like, I am, the movie, the movie could do better to make Tony more integrated to the story. Of course. He's important to me, though. The movie does win the Glad Media Award for Outstanding Film and Wide for Lee. We'll talk about it.

Before we get off of the sports movie thing, though, I did want to play a game, which is I decided to bring back alter egos. we haven't played alter egos for a while. So alter egos is the game where I quiz Chris with the name of three movie characters from three different movies. He has to then work out what movies, what actors have played those characters, and then what is the other movie that all three of those actors are in? All of the answers for this one, Chris, will be sports movies. I know you're very excited about that. So any questions before I throw you into another round of alter egos? Can you also explain off-sides to me through various kitchen condiments?

I will, you know what? Offsides took a while for me, too, I will say, as somebody who is... I understand how off-sides is so hard for people. Well, because American football off-sides is a very specific and different thing. American essentialism, how dare you? Did you ever play soccer in your youth? I played it when I was very young. But, like, too young to, like, get off sides.

Like, we didn't have that. Play is... We had indoor soccer. I played indoor soccer. Play is a very extreme term for what I did in soccer. I was forced into a soccer team as a child. I looked into being a part of a very good team. And I remember we were never scored on.

Nice. And I was always as the obviously home. homosexual child who was obviously forced to be there and obviously didn't want to be there. I was always forced on to defense and we were never scored against nor really did. We had a very aggressive offense team. I would get in trouble for sitting down and not playing. But I'm like, what am I supposed to do? Just stand here?

Yes. Just stand, like, no one's even coming over here. I could sit down. Did you have a book with you when you sat down on the pitch and... I'm sure I tried. I'm sure I tried. All right. I played youth soccer.

It was a winter league, so it was indoor youth soccer. We just played at the rec center. I had one game where I scored two goals. That was the only time I ever really had. Oh, proud of you. I also, though, got a soccer ball kicked into my mid-second. so hard that I like, um, uh, couldn't breathe for a minute. I remember that. That was just like, fully got the win. When they say got the wind knocked out of you, like,

it is literal in that sense of just like, you really just sort of like forget how to breathe for a second. Oh yeah. I watched it happen to multiple cousins. That it's scary. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no. Um, but yeah, I had one game where I'd had a good game. That was it. Otherwise, I did mostly the same thing. We'd just sort of like, move, run a little bit this way, run a little bit that way. If the ball comes close to me, just kick it. I don't care where it goes. Just kick it away from me. And that'll do. I will also say there are a few things as funny as like very young soccer teams of like kids that truly don't even understand what they're there to do. They just move in this hive. In this pack. Yes. Yeah. Have you ever been to like a bunch of flamingos?

Have you ever been to a hockey game? I can't imagine the answer to that is yes. Yes. Oh, I like watching people fight, so I kind of like hockey. So did you ever have the thing where in between periods, they have the, like, the pee-wee hockey teams come out and play a little bit, play a little. No, no. So those are even funnier because they will also move in packs, but they're on skates. So it's even funnier where they just sort of just like, just sway from one side to the other, and they're all chasing the puck. And it's, it's adorable. It's very, very cute.

All right. Anyway, alter egos, all the answers to these are sports movies. I'm going to start you off with an easy one. So this one is, your three characters are Sidney Ellen Wade, Ellie Arrowway, and Gregori Resputein. Sydney Ellen Wade is Annette Benning in the American President. I'm guessing this is Nyad. This is Nyad.

Who's Ellie Arrowway? That is Jody Foster in contact. Yes. Gregori Respute. And then Risi Fon's in something where he's Russian? The King's Man. He plays Respirator. Buten in the Kingsman.

Interestingly enough. Never saw it. Okay. Your next one. Robin of Loxley, Sister Helen Prejohn, and Andy Dufrein. Robin of Loxley is Kevin Costner in Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves. This is Bull Durham, because one of those is Susan. Sister Helen Prejohn is Susan Saran. Sister Helen Prejohn, yes. And then what's the Tim Robbins character?

Andy Dufrain. Andy Dufrain, which is Shawshank. Yes. What's Sister Helen Prejean? You have to... Oh, Dead Man, one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay.

Next one. Johnny Storm, John Rambo, Agent M. Johnny Storm is Chris Evans? Is that his Fantastic Four character? Yes, Johnny Storm is the character that Chris Evans plays in Fantastic Four. Oh, so it's the other. one, so it's Jamie Bell?

Not Jamie Bell. Not Jamie Bell. Jamie Bell plays the thing. Oh, interesting. Oh, so it's Michael B. Jordan. Agent M is Tommy Lee Jones in Men and Black. Agent K, I think, is Tommy Lee Jones in Men and Black? So it's Will Smith?

No, he's Agent J. but agent m is oh it's tessa thompson and men in black international this is creed this is creed uh any guess on who the second one was uh what was the character name it's sylvestre sloon it's servester sloon i pronounced it differently to throw you off the send i said john rambo but of course it's john rambo from rambo yeah um all right very good creed next one ted bundy carman bearsato and abby Lockhart. Oh, this one's hard. Ted Bundy is was that Zach Ephron played Ted Bundy? Yes. Zach Ephron's. Oh, is this the, this is the Nicholas Sparks.

The lucky one? It's not the lucky one. That is a movie. It's not Charlie St. Cloud. It's not Charlie St. Cloud. Which isn't the Nicholas Sparks, but I think he plays baseball in that movie. Yes. What's the name of this? Ted Bundy, Carmen Berzado, and Abby Lockhart Yeah, I don't think the other people are going to help me get the time.

The other two are from TV, I will tell you that. Ah. Carmen Bear Zotto. Bear. Is Bear in quotes like it's a nickname? No. But it is pertinent to this character. The bear?

Yeah. the brave one Nope What is the name of this movie You're thinking of the wrong movie Who do you have now? You have Zach Afron You have

I mean like I know that he's in a Nicholas Sparks movie And I know Getting the other actress It's not the Nicholas Sparks movie Oh okay It's not You're barking up the wrong tree Is this high school musical three

Because it's a basketball movie? No Who? You got the second one. Who is Carmen Bear Zotto? Someone from the Bear. Yeah. Who? In a Zach Efron movie? Yeah. These are all like, is it Eben Moss Bacharach? No. Is it Jeremy Allen White? Oh, this is the Iron.

Yes. I don't watch that show. That's not... Abby Lockhart is more a tyranny and ER. All right. Got it. Next one. Bob Woodward. Alex Forest and Vicky Vale Vail

Vicky Vale is Kim Basinger Yes in Batman Yes The Redford is Bob Woodford And all the

President's men This is the natural This is the natural Who's Alex Forrest Alex Forst Alex Forst is Glenn Close in fatal attraction Very good

Yes very good The Natural Next one Rue Bennett Mr. Elton and Riff This is Challenger's Rue is From Zendaya and Euphoria

Yes Riff is Mike Feist in West Side Story What was the Josh O'Connor character name? Mr. Elton Emma Emma period Oh, right

Right All right next one I'm a period. Thank you. Challengers. All right. Next one. Larry Flint, Simon Phoenix, and herself, parentheses, the view host. Larry Flint is Woody Harrelson in People versus Larry Flint.

Yes. Herself, the view host. That's like, Whoopi? Is Whoopi ever playing herself on The View in a movie? I'm sure she has, but that's not her. who this is pertaining to but that's but you're on the right track rosy not rosy which rosy oh donnell no Perez yes rosy Perez started her as herself hosting the view yeah she hosts do you remember when she hosted the view when she was one of us yeah but i don't remember

her being in you're gonna have to tell me what movie this is well you've already got two people that she starred as herself on the view no no no no no no oh I don't I don't know, like literally I don't know what. Oh, you're just using it as a TV credit. Yes. Yeah. Great. Woody Harrelson, I think, was also, oh, this is White Man Can't Jump. There you go. What's the Wesley Snipes movie? Simon Phoenix is Wesley Snipes and Demolition Man. Ah. Yes. Woody Harrelson, Wesley Snipes, Rosie Perez, in White Men Can't Jump. All right, your next one. Achilles, Donnie Azoff, Lancaster, Dodd. this is this is Moneyball because Achilles is Brad Pitt and Troy Lancaster Dodd

is a Philip Seymour Hoffman in the master what was the Jonah Hill character Donnie Azoff No idea Is that Wolf of Wall Street? It's Wolf of Wall Street Yeah yeah

All right next one Harley Quinn Tommy Lee and Prudy Pinkleton Harley Quinn Has to be Margot Robbie. But what was she in? That was a sports movie.

Tommy Lee and what was the third character? Prudy Pinguleton. Oh, that is Allison Janney in Hairspray. Oh, this is I-Tanya. Yes. This is I-Tanya. Tommy Lee? Oh, Tommy Lee, as in Pam and Tommy.

This in Pam and Tommy. Yes. All right, Sebastian Stan. Yes. All right. Next one. Penny Pinkleton, Kane Wise and Juggernaut.

This is she's the one. It's Amanda Bynes says Penny Pinkerton. It's not she's the one. She's the man. She's the man. Yes. Amanda Bynes. Kane Wise.

Any guesses? That's got to be Channing Tatum as Kane Wise. Is that? Channing Tatum's got some funny character names in his CV. This is from Jupiter ascending. His character's name is Cain. I love that movie.

And Juggernaut is Vinnie Jones. Vinnie Jones from the X-Mid movies. All right, next one. Robert Kincaid, Lois Lane, and Sean Parker. This is Trouble with the Curve. Lois Lane is Amy Adams in various bad movies. Robert Kincaid is Eastwood's character in Bridges of Madison County. Yes, very good.

Good. And, of course, Sean Parker is... Oh, Justin Timberlake in Social Network. There you go. All right. Next one. Wichita, John DuPont, and Wallace Simpson. Oh, that's going to drive me crazy of whatever Wichita is. Is that... That's... That's not a Tarantino name, is it?

Say the second and third name again? John DuPont and Wallace. Simpson. John DuPont is Steve Carell in Foxcatcher. Wallace Simpson is Andrea Reisbrough in W.E.? Yes. Oh, what is this?

Correll and Riseboro. I know they've been together. This is... But Corell's not first build. What's that first character name again? Wichita. Which is a... I feel like that's another sports movie maybe.

No, it's an action movie thing. It's like... Yeah. What Steve Carrell's sports movies are there? That's not Foxcatcher. That also has Andrea Rysborough in it. Would you like me to give you an alternate to Wichita? Yes.

Your clue for that one is Natalie. Nelly? Natalie. Oh, Natalie. Oh, is this, this is... Why did I say it like... Is this on a ferris? Well, no.

It's not on a ferris because... It's Emma Stone. Yeah. Oh, that's Emma Stone in... In Zombie Land. This is Battle of the Sun. It is Battle of a Sexes. I'm glad you knew that I was doing an Ana Farris impersonation. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. One of the funniest scenes in anything ever is when she's pronouncing their names that way. Anyway. All right, last one. Mariner, Darth Vader, Darth Vader, Darth Vader, Henry Hill. Henry Hill is...

what's an actor's name? Mariner is Waterworld. Yes, it's Kevin Koster in Waterworld. It's not, why did I almost say Robert Mitchum, and then I was like, don't say Robert Mitchum. It's not Robert Mitchum. Henry Hill. I'm not, I've never been a music man person. It's not, no, that's, wait, is that also Henry Hill?

Oh, am I thinking of the wrong? Yeah, you're thinking of the music man. It's not the music man. I believe I was his character's name in this. Hold on a second. By the end of this game, my name is the music man. Harold Hill. I can't remember any single character. Henry Hell had to end the movie by living like a schnook. He asked for marinera sauce and he gets noodles and ketchup.

It's... Imagine a person really sweaty from cocaine. Alvin Molina, Boogie Nights. I can't believe you didn't make it be Amy Madigan. Well, what's an Amy Madigan character name you're going to get? You know what I mean? That's the problem. What's another one for this person?

Henry Hill. He thinks somebody else is funny, but is he a clown to you? Oh, is this... it's not peshy is it is peshy in field of dreams no no but who's who's who's who's who thinks oh ray leota there you go is rayleota his dad i have not seen this movie since i was a single digit raleliota is shulis joe jackson who is the first person who comes to oh oh and goodfellas duh yeah idiot yeah yeah yeah there you go all right this game is hard this game is always hard that was alter egos i thought you did a very

good job with it all right anyway um let's talk about Fox Searchlight in 2003. It's a big year. It's big year. They also have 28 days later. One of the best movies ever. They kind of start the year with like feasible contenders, including John Malkovich's The Dancer Upstairs, which got praise for Javier Bradem.

Did Malcovich direct the dancer upstairs? Sure did. Okay. I remember also the good thief was Nick Nolte. I remember this was very, very much. Neil Jordan. Yes, Neil Jordan. This was very, very much into my, like,

I was very intense into indie films, and also this was when I would go to the indie film theater before work pretty much every time I had a shift. And so I saw, like, rabbit-proof fence. That's not one of the searchlight movies, but, like, I saw La Bourges-Spaniel. I was so into that idea of, like, this is, you know, this is fancy. Something special. In August, they released both Le Divorce, see our previous episode on Le Divorce. And 13, eventual Oscar nominee for Holly Hunter. Yep.

And probably very close Evan Rachel Wood. Probably possibly, yeah. Especially considering all that was going on in lead actress this year. And then in November, they have in America, which was ultimately their biggest push. What's so interesting is in America, premieres at the 2002 Toronto International Film Festival. Ben, like Beckham releases in America a year after it's released and like 28 days later. It's like this is not a common thread with Searchlight that they're releasing and pushing and having success with movies. They do it a lot this particular year.

Yeah. Yeah. So that, that I think is interesting. And in America, like, I think if in America had, you know, another week or two of campaigning could have been a best picture nominee. certainly would have been a best picture nominee in a year of the 10. In America is one of those movies that at the beginning of that year, there was a lot of look-ahead buzz to it because it was Jim Sheridan and Jim Sheridan had such a great track record with the Oscars between my left foot

and in the name of the father and the boxer didn't get any Oscar nominations, but it was in the conversation. And Samantha Morton had been an Oscar nominee already for Sweet and Lowdown. and then it kind of got swallowed by the middle of that year, and it was kind of assumed that it just wasn't going to happen. And then in the very late stages of the game, you get this comeback on nomination morning, where Samantha Morton is a very big surprise nominee for Best Actress.

Jaiman Hansu is a decent surprise for supporting actor, and the screenplay, I think, was always going to get nominated. I think that was always in the conversation. But I love in America. in America, one of my favorite movies that year. Do you remember... I didn't like it that year. I should re-watch that movie to get a formed opinion of it.

What I will say, because we mentioned in America, would absolutely probably have been a Best Picture nominee in a year of a 10. I think something like Bendett, like Beckham's chances change dramatically. You think so? It's like kind of exactly what I mean when I say the entire race changes and more things can be considered when you have a Best Picture 10, versus a Bex Picture 5. I think, if nothing else, you know,

it just gets it in the conversation more to where it ends up being a screenplay nominee. Possibly. It was nominated by the Writers Guild. I mean, this is a year that Dirty Pretty Things is a screenplay nominee, and that is not a movie that is particularly refined, I feel like.

I think, Bend it like Beckham from the perspective of 2024, I don't think it looks particularly good as a visual object. I don't, you know what I mean? I think the editing feels not amateurish, but over-eager. It's hyperactive in the MTV thing

that we were talking about at the top of the episode. It's off-putting to me from now from a perspective of 2024. It's very much a movie that is targeted towards young people. Right. Which is what I think caps

its appeal to an academy in 2003, a special. But that, element of it, you know, also being a searchlight movie. But, you know, having real bona fides in terms of being an audience hit, this is a movie we're talking about that was a word of mouth hit that, you know, built over time. And I will say that. Those are the things that end up getting those eighth to tenth slots. And, you know, you can even look at Coda, a movie that in 2003 wouldn't have scored those Oscar nominations. But because the 10 opens things wide, and it allows for a campaign that it's like, oh, actually, all of these people are incredibly charming, and I was impacted emotionally by this movie. I'm going to vote for it. All right. We're going to game this out because now you've gotten my wheels turning, unfortunately. So, 2003, best picture. So your nominees are Lord of the Rings Return of the King. We just did this for the Golden Globe. That's so funny. Lord of the Rings, Return of the King, Lost in Translation, Master and Commander, Mystic River, Seabiscuit. Now, I think you can. can credibly say that given how well City of God did on Oscar nomination with a screenplay nomination and a director nomination and a cinematography nomination, I believe, where it's three,

I think you can put City of God in there as a sixth, right? I think also being such a massive hit and a beloved movie, I think you can also put Finding Nemo in there. I think so, too. So then, let me just write down the list of possibilities without giving them an up or down. So House of Sand and Fogg is a two-time acting nominee. So I think that's there. Although Jennifer Connolly not getting in Best Actress is notable. In America, we said, would get a shot.

I think you put Whale Rider on the long list. I think you put, um, what are our screenplay nominees? Um, I kind of, I don't put dirty, pretty things or barbarian invasions on there. Um, I don't put American Splendor in the, in, in, American Splendor, I think is another 2003 example that if you have a Best Picture 10, that movie's chances dramatically increase. That's, okay, that's fair. All right. I'm going to put it up and like, fully for every contender for that movie, it has a better shot if that movie has a better shot at the movie I'm going to posit to you as being the movie that is possible as the well it was such a you know ground swell hit is pirates of the

caribbean I think Pirates of the Caribbean is a best picture nominee if if it's a 10 that year I don't maybe because Pirates of the Caribbean did get a lot of nominations um yeah I think I mean I think cold mountain is safe to say in the eighth slide the mirror max of it all is enough to carry it. Yeah. I think instead of I think instead of Pirates of the Caribbean, out of phony respectability reasons, the Academy in 2003 is more likely to choose something like the last samurai or girl with a pearl earring. I was going to say girl with a

pearl earring, yep. Um, okay, so, all right, so we put down all of the long listers. I think if I'm going to go with a best picture 10, so it's the five that get nominated, I will add City of God, Finding Nemo, Cold Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, and in America. I would replace Pirates of the Caribbean. The last, I mean, so the thing about the last samurai, I don't think it's Pirates of the Caribbean. Okay. You know, those kind of spectacle movies, I think also were up against Return of the King.

And so I don't know if that 10th slot goes to something like that. Okay. And this is in the reality of what that year was actually like not. the reality of if there was always going to be a 10, how would that have changed the race? Sure. Because I also think another movie, in addition to bend it like Beckham and American Splendor, that would have had a shot if that's already where people's minds were, is something's got to give? Mm-hmm. That's very possible. That's very possible. Which one am I going to say instead of Pirates of the... I guess I'll say, girl with the pearl earring.

I think that's a very good one. I think that one probably came closer than we realized. I also feel like I always get a little bit more bullish on the chances for a documentary movie to make it into the top ten, even though that never happens, even in the current landscape. But I think both The Fog of War and Capturing the Freedman's were both very, very sort of Ballyhooed documentaries. We were just in Vulture Slack recently talking about what a depressing reality it is, that no documentaries have any kind of box office presence anymore that documentaries have been pretty much entirely abandoned to streaming and that like if you look at the top earning documentaries theatrical most of them are these like right wing crackpot things that you know those don't count those aren't real but but we've ceded the entire box office to them because we don't put out you know actual you know

quality documentaries and theaters anymore and you look back at 2003 and i think i don't know how much money they made entirely. But something like capturing the Friedman's like got a real legitimate theatrical run, I remember, and the fog of war as well. And I mean, you look at just, you know, a couple of years later, Fahrenheit 9-11 was a $100 million movie and say what you will about the quality of that documentary. But, you know, it was, it was a... There's also relatively recent history where there were documentaries making real money. Like neon got 12, or three identical strangers to like $12 million or something like that, you know. Yeah.

And like, again, a movie you could say what you would about the quality of that, you know. Right. Right. Anyway, sort of backing it up and backing it up to bend it like Beckham. This movie does get a number of award nominations. We talked about the Golden Globe thing. We did that. Sign up for our Patreon if you want to hear us to go all in on that Golden Globe ceremony, which we do. It's also a Writers Guild nominee, ends up losing to Sophia Coppola for Lost in Translation,

is nominated alongside eventual Oscar nominees in America and Dirty Pretty Things alongside Tom McCarthy's The Station Agent, which is just such a lovely, well-written movie, and is a bummer that that doesn't make the Oscar list. It is, as you mentioned, a Movies for Grownups nominee, and I didn't write this down in the outline, so I'm going to have to look this up on the IMDB. I have it. The Best Intergenerational Film also nominated alongside In America and Whale Writer. The winner is Second Hand Lions.

Jeepers. Now, remind the listeners what Second Hand Lions was, because people have forgotten that movie. Second Hand Lions is Michael Cain and Robert Duval and Haley Joel Osment, and they raise elder lions. is a kid who his parents maybe die and he goes to live on his... No, his mom is Kira Sedgwick

and she basically like dumps him at this farm. At the farm of his grandfather and his grandfather's friend? Are they brother? Like, what's the relationship between Juval and King? I forget if they're brothers or friends.

It's not queer-coded. No, it's not. That would be fun if they were two old gays raising lions. Hold on. I'm looking up secondhand lions right now. The original what was that called? Not Lion King.

We bought a zoo? No, the thing that was like the first thing of COVID. Like this thing dropped on Netflix and everyone locked down. A Panther King? Oh, Tiger King. What is this thing? Tiger King. Awful, terrible. Okay, so Haley Joel Osmond is 14 years old.

His irresponsible mother, Kira Sedgwick, sends him to live for the summer on the the ramshackle, Texas farm of his reclusive bachelor great uncles, hub and garth. Which one do you think is more of a hub and which one do you think is more of a garth? Gary's get at us. Which one of Joe and I are more of a hub? Which one is more of a garth? In this movie, though, who do you think of Duval and Kane? Who's the hub and who's the garth? The hub is probably Michael Cain. No, you are wrong. The hub is Robert Duval. The garth is Michael Cain. Okay, so it's great uncles. So it's Kira Sedgwick's uncles.

Maybe that movie had a leg up because it's the, Only one that the intergenerational stuff is not children and parents. You know, it's children and great uncles. And great uncles. How often is that relationship explored? So, yes, so M4G champion secondhand lions. Very good. Bennett-Lyckham gets two Bifa nominations.

You know, we love the BFAs, the British Independent Film Awards. It loses Best British Independent Film to a movie called Sweet 16. Ken Loach. Is it? I think that's a Ken Loach. That was a Cannes Ken Loach movie. Was it really? Okay. Yes.

Martin Comston also wins best or most promising newcomer for Sweet 16 over Parmender Nagra. So there is that. Glad Media Awards does give this the award for outstanding wide release. There's only one other movie nominated with it because that was the state of queer films in wide release at the time. and that movie was Under the Tuscan Sun, which counts because, as you recall, if you listen to our Under the Tuscan Sun episode, she goes on a gay but away, gay and away, gay and away, the tour of Italy. So my gay and away tour of Italy is whenever I go to the Olive Garden, hey-o. When you're here, your family, but like, you know, as the gay code, are they family? Yeah.

We mentioned the Globe nominee. It's nominated alongside Finding Nemo, Big Fish, Love Actually, and the winner, Lost in Translation. That's right. I love a movie that can be... The Best British Film Award of 2002, so this means Bend It Like Beckham is standing alongside the Hours.

Interesting to think of the hours as a British film, which obviously the filmmaker is British and a third of it takes place in England, but like two-thirds of it takes place in the United States. So, yeah. I love a movie that can be both a glad media award winner

and a NACP Image Award nominee, both of which for Best Picture. It loses Best Motion Picture at the NDACP Image Awards to The Fighting Temptations. A movie I've never seen. Also nominated Bad Boys 2, deliver us from Eva. So Gabrielle Union was all over this NDACP Image Awards.

And Whale Rider. So there we go. National Board of Review, before they had a second top ten for indie movies, they had something called Special Recognition for Excellence in Filmmaking. See also the upcoming this had Oscar both superlatives over on the Patriot. See also that. So these movies were in alphabetical order. There was no winner.

It was just they were all winners. American Splendor, Dirty Pretty Things, Girl with a Pearl Earring, Shattered Glass. We'll see our episode on that. The Cooler, the Secret Life. of Dentists, The Statement, 13, and Whale Rider. So, all of that. 11 films. I mean, it's the NBR.

You know what I mean? They're going to do it. They're going to do it that way. What ones could we do? We can't do American Splendor, Dirty Pretty Things, Girl with a pearl earring, or the cooler. Did American Splendor get that screenplay nominee? I think I just... Maybe we'll do an exception on that at some point.

Yeah, it did get a screenplay nomination. Yes, we could do it. exception episode on that. I think it would be very fun. We could do Secret Lives of Dentists. I guess we could do Secret Lives of Dentists. Who was I literally, who directed that? I literally was just looking up. Alan Rudolph, I think. Right, because I'm doing a Mortal Thoughts episode on the Demi

podcast. The statement, which is a movie that, like, technically exists, but not really. I think that's a Sony classics. I think probably. It has that vibe. 13 is obviously an Oscar nominee for Holly Hunter and the whale, and the, not the whale writer. Sorry, Grandma. Whale Rider.

It's cleaner that way. Kessel Hughes is a nominee for Whale Rider. We can't even do that as an exception because it ultimately kind of overachieves the mark. I think making the screenplay case for this movie is indicative that this was a Writers Guild nominee for original screenplay. Yes. Which often feels like is representative of what was in sixth place because various ineligibilities happen. That's fair. I don't know if I necessarily think this is a particularly great screenplay movie. I don't know if I would support an awards case for Bendett like Beckham. It just happens with comedies, though, that is like the crowd pleaser, the organic. I just feel like I would have probably, I would probably complain about it if this got a, if this got a writing. The real probably six place screenplay placer that's in this lineup is the station agent, which we've done an episode.

Do fucking love the station agent. Yes, go listen to our episode on the station agent. It's great. Um, anything else we want to bring up about Bend at Lake Beckham. I'm going to go into my notes. I mentioned the frenetic editing. I remember I mentioned the twoed forward youth culture of the early odds. This was very, there's a lot of like girls calling other girls slags. There's a lot of like, you know, shirtless boys sort of, you know, punching each other or whatever. Um, I can't believe you haven't mentioned that Jules has a garbage CD. Oh, she sure does. In one of those, back in the aughts, we had really stretched the limits of CD storage culture. We had, you had your, you know, your wallet at the time, your disc wallet could be a thing. You had your book, your big book of discs that you could keep. You had your rack that you could just, you know, slide the CDs in. And then every time, every year it seemed, there was like a new way to store your. CDs. And by 2002, this meant that you had a sort of like, you know how you have like a shoe um, uh, yeah, the little hanging things with little, you have a bunch of the little slots little plastic pockets for shoes. Yeah. It's that, but for CDs. And so that's what Jules has hanging on her wall is sort of a plastic sheet that you slot little CDs into. And the one shot of her, the one right over her shoulder is Garbage's self-titled debut album, which is very, very

recognizable because it's a pink sort of like feather poof thing with the G emblazoned on it. And I love that album. To this day, I think that is such a banger album. That's the one with Only Happy When It Rains and queer and stupid girl.

And so, so many good songs. I love that album so much. What else? Melcies, I turn to you, which immediately as soon as it starts playing, I'm like, oh yeah, I remember this one. It's like a dance mix, too. Very much a dance mix. And it's the scene in the club because a coach takes his underage team to the club.

Is it underage in England, though? Well, it's Germany. Or Germany. Or Germany. But they're dancing to a dance remix of, I turn to you. Yeah. Which, like, if you're just there with your friends, awesome. I love that Juliette Stevenson's character that they give her a through line of, um,

explaining social trends through celebrities where she's like, she explained that she's cool with gay people because she's like, it's terrible what they did to that George Michael. Or, you know, what was the other thing where, oh, there's a reason why Sporty Spice is the only one without a hit, which this movie, like, completely defies with playing multiple Melcy songs. The Sporty Spice hit in my house is the, the version of

I know him so well from Chess that she does with Emma Bunton. It is very good. Wait. Unfortunately, we love the musical chess. Wait, who does I know him so well with Emma Bunton? Mousie. Oh, fantastic. I should look that up.

Sorry, I was looking at my notes while you were saying that, which is why. Being gay for David Beckham is Ott's representation. So once again, Tony is living my truth in this movie. it was kind of an odd cameo in that like you don't even he doesn't even like you could have he could have conceivably they could have just lucked him at the airport

which I feel like is a little bit more true to life I feel like a cameo where he like walks up and is like heard you a good at soccer or whatever football heard you a good at football and whatever like that would have been a little bit of easy or like oh you dropped this that and then Posh is like David what can be like and just like

not paying attention. I love Posh. I don't care. Is she bad? We didn't talk enough about Parmur Nagra in this movie, who I think is quite good. Were you an ER person? Yes, but by the time she came on, I had lapsed from that show more or less. So I wasn't. She's done a lot of TV since then. Yes. And she's, but I mean, from whenever I would dip into ER, she seemed really good. She was in the sort of like Moratirney, Linda Cardalini, Mackay Fyfer sort of era of E.R. E.R. is very, one of these days I'm going to like do a proper rewatch where I watch the entire series. That is a show. Sounds like self-abuse.

Well, but it's also one of those things where you can just like passively watch it, you know what I mean? Sure, sure. And I feel like that's like perfect, perfect passive watching. She gives a good teenager performance in this movie because, like, Like, one of the most annoying things about movies about teens is when, you know, your protagonist is like, and I'm a teenager, and this is what teenagers are like, and this is how teenagers talk. And, like, she just gets to be a person, you know. I mean, ultimately. You can get that even with teenagers playing teenagers, you know.

Yeah. I think ultimately she and Jules both seem like 20-somethings to me, and that's fine. Like, that's, I don't need, I don't need to have. The other thing is just like, she's never in school. You know what I mean? Like, there's just like, it's one of these things. But she's talking about going to college so we know she is not of college age. Right.

But it's just like, what are you on your gap year? Like, what's going on? Like, what do you do with your days? Like, it's kind of funny. I don't think Jess's parents would allow her to have a gap year. No, that's true. I guess it's maybe just like it's summertime. It has an odd Nassund Dorma needle drop at some point.

I was into it. I was into it. Sure, I'm always into it. Placido Domingo, maybe, Luciano Pavarotti. I don't know. I'm not sure. Who knows? All right.

Anything else you want to say before we move into the IMDB game? Thank you, Priyanka, for bringing this episode to us. Thank you, Priyanka. This was fun. We hope you enjoyed the episode that you chose for us. Yes. Always love talking about 2003, which is somehow 2002 in the UK. Yes.

Thank you. All right. All right. Should we move on to the IMDB game? Yeah. Why don't you tell our listeners what the IMDB? game is. 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'll mention that up front. After two wrong guesses, we get the remaining titles release years as a clue. That's not enough. We just becomes a free for all of hints. Indeed. That's the IMDB game. All right, Chris, would you like to give first or guess first? I'm going to give first. I have been way too nice to you lately And you gave us some time to talk about sports movies However, I don't think you gave us any other soccer movies

Okay And when I think soccer movies, first one that comes to my mind besides Bend It Like Beckham Is Ladybug Oh sure None other than Rodney Dangerfield And Joseph Reed I have selected Rodney

Dangerfield. There is one voice performance. Is it Rover Dangerfield? Is that the... It is Rover Dangerfield. Was that a movie or a TV show? Sure was a movie. Wow. Okay. 1991's Rover Danger. Amazing. Great start. All right. I'm off to a great start. Is back to school one of them? Back to school is one of them. Is Caddyshack one of them? Caddyshack is one of them. Maybe I was not being too evil to you. Sorry. All right. So Lady Bugs could be one of them. Natural-born killers could be one of them.

I'm trying to think of other, like, 80s stuff that I wouldn't want to forget. I'm going to guess natural-born killers. Natural-born killers is incorrect. Is it Ladybugs? It is not Ladybugs. Ladybugs is also incorrect. Okay. What's my year?

Your year is 1983. So after Caddyshack, but before. back to school. Right. Is there another definitive Rodney Dangerfield movie that I'm forgetting? Is it a Rodney Dangerfield movie or is he a supporting play? The poster is quite literally his face. Ugh. Is it like, hey, I don't get no respect. That's basically the face that he's making. Yeah. And the tagline's like, it's Rodney. What do you expect? The tagline is, no cheating, no gambling, no booze, no smoking, no pizza, no nothing.

Rodney Dangerfield, title. Abstinence. The plot line for this movie is, to inherit his mother-in-law's colossal fortune, a hard-living gambling addict must change his unhealthy ways before they get the best of him. Okay. I've never seen this movie, obviously. Speaking of Goodfellas, the second build in this movie is someone from Goodfellas. Lorraine Braca? No. Joe Pesci?

Joe Pesci. Wow. All right. So he's got to inherit his mother's fortune. He's got to clean up. He's got to figure his life out. So the title refers to his task of. um flying right or whatever it's no is it called like the screw up is it called like no it's not a the the inheritance no okay it is two words um it's two words it's like um it's too words it's like bust and loose but not bust and loose kind of is it is it like a there's uh there's no verb okay like um it's adjective now it's adjective now

Is the adjective like a pejorative? It could be used pejoratively, but I don't think it's pejorative in this situation. It could be used pejoratively, but not in this case. Like, and is the noun, like, guy? If Jules and Jess called you a slag, they would be saying, you are promiscuous. What would be a way to say that that would still be acceptable by the Hayes Code? Loose.

Didn't I just say Bustin, loose? Loose is probably not accepted by the HaysCode. Yeah, it's probably true. Easy, easy money. There you go. Easy money? Easy money. Never, have never experienced easy money.

Okay, okay. You can watch it right now on MGM Plus. Okay. All right. Well, so you were, you were in fact being mean to me. I just didn't realize it for the first three ones. Okay. I have also never heard of easy money. I'm tempted to go. I turned away from a harder one and gave you an easier one, but now I'm tempted to go back. But no. I went through the ER phone tree for to connect to Parminder Nagra. I mentioned that she was on ER during more tyranny's reign on that show. We have not done more. Moira Tierney and since like the first few months of this podcast. So I'm going to reanimate the Mora Tierney that had Oscar Buzz. It is one television show and three films. The television show is, is it ER or the affair? She won awards for the affair, but I think

she also won awards for ER too. So I'm going to say ER. It is ER. Okay. And three movies. One of them is Liar, Liar. Yes. I never think of her in Liar. liar that's so funny um i think she's second build in that movie um so are any of these i do think some stuff from last year is showing up so i'm gonna say the iron claw she should be but is not the iron claw okay beautiful boy excuse me yes beautiful boy okay so one more movie one more wrong guess Mora Tierney is also in Just Thinking of TV But I don't think it's going to be as recent

As some of these others So what was one of her Like late 90s movies What was happening after Liar Liar? Or is it like an honor? sample thing is it going to be um i may just have to burn something because this is like she was on news radio right it's that was something got like her initial push to fame was news radio she's great on that show right um i'll just i'll just say news radio and get my year to no it's it's it's

You already got the TV show. Yeah, but I'm just... Oh, okay. I'm doing what you do. Oh, okay. Gotcha. To move the gate. No, I understand.

It's 2002. Okay, so it's not recent. Post-Layer, liar, but probably while she's on ER. I would wager she's like fifth or sixth build. No, even further down there, I think. Yeah, because this is like an on. ensemble. This is like a, I'm guessing, procedural-ish movie 2002. There's more style to it than that, but the bones of it is procedural, yes. Is it like rules of engagement? No. It's not rules of

engagement. Is it a military-esque movie? No, no. It's, again, there's more of an artistic flair to it than that. It is more autourish. Ah, in 2002. Yes. So that, probably means not Oscar nominated. I deeply want to re-watch this movie now that I'm seeing. I'm looking at it. So it's a Joe Reed special. Yeah, I really liked it. In 2002.

Hmm. Not an Oscar nominee. Not even close to being an Oscar nominee. I don't know if I would say not even close. It's not like it made like a bunch of precursors or whatever, but I imagine it was like in conversations. Yeah. Theuteur is, I'm guessing, American.

Um, no. British. Yes. Okay. It did get nominations for things like it got a satellite nomination. It got a couple of Saturn Award nominations. It got... Oh, so it's genre.

Is it a thriller? Uh, yeah. I'm a British filmmaker Yeah In 2002 Yeah Who could that be Um

She's like Fifth or Sixth build Yeah She's pretty far down there Um It is a sort of It's a major major filmmaker Oh okay

a follow-up to a breakthrough follow-up to a breakthrough yes so this is were they a major filmmaker in O2 or they had just sort of yeah the breakthrough sort of announced them as a sort of major presence

and then after this they would really level up into another realm Hmm. It's not Danny Boyle, because O2 is when 28 days later releases in the UK. Oh, that was the thing I was going to mention to you when we were talking about that. Do you remember how, like, what the legend that had sort of built up around 28 days later before it came to the United States? You mean, like, the different American version of the movie? No.

And how Killian Murphy is going to be in this new sequel, even though I guess they're just saying. the UK version of the movie's not real. That's right. The ending of the movie was changed. No, I mean how like, before 28 days later came to the United States, but after it opened in England, the reputation for that movie. It built up in status. It was just like people were rabid for it.

Festival screenings, basically. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, so who, not Daldry, obviously. No. It's bigger than Dahltery. Um... I guess I don't, especially in this time, when you're talking about emerging autours, you think of a lot of Americans. Right.

Or you think of non-UK. Europeans like Claire Deney. I will say, I mean, I guess her first. This director is English, but don't box him into England. Yeah. Oh, it's Nolan. It's insomnia. Yes, it is. In fact, insomnia.

Yes. Wow. Yeah. A great... Why, I mean, I guess it's Nolan, so that's why it's honor or known for, but... Yeah. She didn't even give me some of the buzzwords that this could have been. You could have been like, it's a remake.

Alaska. I mean, no, if I would have given it, you Alaska, you're right? I never... I mean, I know it's a remake, but that's not one of the... I could have been like, you know, it's the biggest filmmaker in... kind of the world right now. The world right now, yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. Anyway, very good job.

And that is our episode. So thank you, Chris. Thank you, Priyanka. Thank you listeners. If you want more, ThisHad Oscar Buzz. You can check out the Tumblr at this had oscarbuzz. You can follow us on Instagram at This Had Oscar Buzz. You can follow Chris and I individually at...

Patreon.com slash this had Oscar buzz. Instagram at This Had Oscar Buzz. No, but where can we find you? Oh. Oh, sorry. I was confused by that introduction. Sorry. I went non-standard. I am on letterboxed and blue sky at Chris V-File. That's F-E-I-L. I am on letterboxed and blue sky at Joe Reed. Read-spelled R-E-I-D. We would like to thank Kyle Cummings for his fantastic artwork and Dave Gonzalez and Gavin Mevious for their technical guidance.

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