This Had Oscar Buzz - 322 – Love Actually

Episode Date: December 23, 2024

Just in time for Christmas, we’re covering a seasonal favorite… or one you love to hate, depending on the corner of the internet you occupy. In 2003, Richard Curtis decked the halls of the ensemble romantic comedy mold with Love Actually. Telling several stories of love and heartache among Londoners during the holidays, Love Actually has since achieved … Continue reading "322 – Love Actually"

Oh, oh, wrong house. No, the right house. We want to talk to Melan Hack, Melan Hack and French. I'm from Canada water. Dick Pooh. Hugh Grant, Liam Neeson, Colin Firth, Laura Linney, Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Rowan Atkinson, Kira Knightley.

Christmas is the time to be with the people you love. Yeah, I need a car. This holiday season, more joy than I've ever dreamed of And does Natalie live here? All you need. Hello. Is love actually?

Are you seen carols? I suppose I could. Please, sir, please. Good King Winterslas looked out on the feast of Stephen. When the snow day round about, Hello and welcome to the This Had Oscar Buzz podcast, the only podcast doing their best at the Christmas church service so they don't have to go every week. Every week on this had Oscar buzz.

Instead, we will be talking about a different movie that once upon a time had Lofty Academy Award aspirations. But for some reason or another, it all went wrong. The Oscar hopes died and we're here to perform the autopsy. I am your host, Chris Fyle, and I'm here as always with I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toes. Joe Reed is all around me, and so the feeling grows. That sounds terrifying, by the way. Also a Halloween song. Joe Reed is all around me.

That's like the joke where Santa Claus is coming to town sounds like a threat. Yeah. A threat, yeah. You better watch out. Yeah. No, it's true. Better not cry. My favorite version of that is, speaking of Christmas, is that the lyrics of

simply having a wonderful Christmas time are really about a coven and hold on I want to bring it up where the lyrics are The mood is up. The mood is right, the spirit's up we're here tonight and that's enough That's right. It's that what the song is

a coven is meeting in the dark of night and then somebody walks in on them where it's like the mood is right, the spirit's up we're here tonight and that's enough and then somebody opens the door and they're going Simply having a wonderful Christmas I don't know. I always find that funny. Anyway. I just thought of a meme of Ina Garden in a witch's hat saying,

if you can't summon the flames of hell, store bought is fine. Simply having a wonderful Christmas time, one of the rare British-coded Christmas songs not included in Love Actually. Actually, though, there are quite a few. And thank God, because I would also say one of the worst Christmas songs. Say that. Yes, it is. Is that better or worse than this Christmas I gave you my heart? Last Christmas I gave you my heart.

Oh, I love that. There is no bad version of that song. Oh. If there is, don't send it to me. I hate it. I hate that song. You know what is also not among the many, many, many, many, many, many songs in this movie. Uh-huh.

Unless correct me if I'm wrong, step into Christmas doesn't show up anywhere. Not that I know of. Step into Christmas, good Christmas song. Who's that? Oh, no. Oh, yeah, I don't know it. I'll look it up after. I'm sorry, I'll look it up after.

It's amazing that it's taken us to like year six to do Love Actually for a Christmas episode, considering... Not that we haven't done holiday-themed episodes. No, we have, kind of plenty of them. But for whatever reason, we have put off Love Actually, we've done the Family Stone, We've done the holiday. We've done... Unless we forget, Hustlers is a Christmas movie.

Hustlers is a Christmas movie. Yeah, we've done some canonically Christmas movies. But we've, for some reason, and not out of any, like, desire to avoid love actually. Because, spoiler, I like this movie. We're going to get into it. I think it's also been, if I'm remembering correctly, there were reasons to not do it because there was too much adjacency to, like, previous Emma Thompson episodes. Right, right. Right, right. I'm sure there was a year where we were like, oh, we just did a 2003 movie. And guess what? We've just done so much 2003 again. We've been back. We basically redid the May minis. We honestly, yes. We've been so, so intensely into 2003. Honestly, take me back. I know that was, you know, it was the George W. Bush administration and we don't want to lionize that, but take me back.

Maybe don't take me back, though, because I've had fun with the 2003 movies we've done. doing the globes on the Patreon. But then when you look at the movies of that... No, I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. But so much was still ahead of us. Now nothing's ahead of. Very true. Very true. We're at the end of the world. Okay. So, yeah, I'm excited

to talk about this movie. I watched this movie for the umpti-bigilient time last night. Although one of those movies that I realized that, like, most of the time when I watch it, I'm hopping in somewhat midstream where, like, a lot of the things that happen in the first 15 minutes of the movie, I'm like, oh, his girlfriend's cheating on him with his brother? I don't know if I remembered that exactly. Or, you know, a lot of the setup to some of these storylines. I'm willing to bet a lot of people who are rewatching this movie every year are also cooking and or baking at the same time as this movie is on.

Yep, yep, yeah, totally. And I will argue, love actually much better background Christmas movie than like a Christmas story. Yeah, I mean, the thing of the charm of a Christmas story is you've seen it a billion times and there are like, there's a slowness to it, right? There's like a, it's probably the ideal situation of watching a Christmas story is to have it sort of on in the background during Christmas Eve celebration or whatever. And whenever you feel like you need to just like plop down on the couch and veg for a few minutes, you can watch Ralphie get his mouth washed out with soap or something like that. A Christmas Story, another movie that I feel like, I feel like there's so much. Our culture is so broken. Our culture is so broken that it feels the need to define, that people feel the need to define themselves by opposition to beloved holiday classics.

for, you know, to make people, to make themselves feel better. And I feel like you get this with every single, I can't think of a Christmas movie that does not have some degree of sort of holier-than-thou backlash against it. I guess, God forbid, the culture actually get their hands on mixed nuts. Like, my family. That is true. We've got to protect. We've got to protect mixed nuts.

Like, problematic at every turn, but also, terrible, but also a delight. I feel like we're at a cultural boomerang moment where people are maybe okay with it's a wonderful life again, but like for a long time, the whole thing on it's a wonderful life is, I don't know why this is a

holiday classic. It goes on forever. It's stupid. Yada, yada, yada. Obviously, we're talking about love actually, but like this happens with the family stone. I hate that family. What an awful family. I would hate to be, you know, in that Christmas justice for Sarah Jessica Parker. I love sex in the city, and that's my whole personality.

Or... I feel like the Sex and the City fanatics love the family stone, though. Yes, but they love it in that particular way. They love it in like, I only love Meredith. She's the hero. This is so rude to Elizabeth Razor. Every time I see it, they dog on that family, I'm like, Elizabeth Razor is the best. Well, Rachel McAdams exists.

Like, you know what I mean? Like, sorry. Yeah, but what did Elizabeth or I ever do anybody in that movie? Nothing. No, I know. But you understand what I'm talking about. Yes, yes, I do.

I'm yelling at those people. Yeah. And I, to bring this back around to a Christmas story. Yes. I think we as a culture need to find another one. Like, the thing about a Christmas story is. Chris, there are other ones. Yes, but there's not other ones that we're putting on 48-hour loops that, you know,

you just drop it. and out of constantly. I sat and watched it from beginning to end semi-recently. Yeah. And a semi-recent Christmas. Yeah. And I was kind of flabbergasted.

I think if you held a gun to anyone's head and made them do a 60-second plot description of the movie and everything that happens had to be told in sequential order, I think everyone would be able to do it. Because everybody, like, I mean, the movie is kind of, kind of, to a degree, a series of vignettes. It is the Amores Peros of Christmas movies. And that, like, nobody remembers the order that anything actually happens in.

And there's, like, brutal dog fighting. Right, right, right. The, yeah, Christmas story has transcended quality. It is so on the present. I love a Christmas story. I appreciate it. It absolutely, you should turn it off before they go out for Christmas dinner because it ends on a horrible racist joke.

Like a ridiculously horrible racist joke. I mean, like, much as I hate like movies that are sold on T-shirts at Target culture, like, you know, put me in one of those, like, 10 things I love, 10 things I hate lists that, what is it, Sweet Baby Press? Something. I love them on Instagram. Yeah. I would have, like, movie T-shirts at Target culture as, like, my number one or two of things I hate. All right. But what I'm proposing is, let's just do it with Elf.

We got to stop a Christmas story being the 24-hour marathon, the 48-hour marathon thing. And let's let the well fill on a Christmas story. Here's what I will say about. And there's other movies I think that can bear that brunt right now. I think a Christmas story is the only movie you can do, you can show in that format because of how you say, because it's so vignetti. And because it's so, you know, that you can do. just sort of like drop in and drop out, whereas I don't think something like Elf would fare as well. I don't think something like Scrooge, which is like one of my favorite Christmas

movies, would fare as well. I think it's a wonderful life, had that reputation for a while where it's just sort of like it's always on. And I think that also sort of fairs a little bit better because it's, you know, it's a long movie and you can sort of, you know, pick it up halfway through. I think certain Christmas, I think, I mean, I mean, whatever, get me on a whole podcast where I talk about, like, the taxonomy of Christmas movies. Because, like, Christmas movies need to, it's a, it's a map, right? It's sort of a topography map. And you need to have your different moods and different colors and different sort of vibes.

And it sort of, like, flows across the season. And I have very, very definite opinions on this. I understand what you're saying about how, like, we need another, like, let the field run fallow for a while so that it can. Let us get back to the point of being able to, like, talk about a Christmas. You're very much into the idea of a scarcity economy these days, so I understand that. We're like, you are, you know, we need to pull back our resources so that we can. Don't let people see the brutalist because the only way that movie succeeds is by extreme demand. This is where Joe is getting this.

My theory is like they need to hold back wide releasing that movie as long as humanly possible. But wait, what I was going to say about T-shirt, movie T-shirt, a target culture is how is that different? than a film by Greta Gerwig t-shirt culture? At its core, it perhaps isn't. But, I mean, you can get that one t-shirt that says Greta Gerwig on it. You can get the one Girls on Topps T's. I'm sure there's also something Super Yaki has that's like Gordwick. But those are still niche.

There is something oppressive when I can look and see. see a wall of different buddy the elf t-shirts and costumes sure sure no i understand i just wanted to sort of get to the get to the root of that you're right you're right um yeah i mean again i will need a whole other second podcast to talk about where the maybe that's something i should pitch it's just like the ideal sort of like flow of a of a perfect christmas movie season but I think love actually fits in the sort of Friday evening where you maybe don't have plans. It's like the one Friday evening where you don't have like a Christmas party to go to. And you've got your shopping finished.

It's Christmas wine. It's wrapping your presents in front of the TV, like that kind of a thing. And you're watching Love Actually. This is also why I argue why can't Love actually take the place of a Christmas story. You can so drop in and out of it. Everybody has their favorite stories. That's true. That's true.

Except, so here's my thing. It doesn't necessarily lend to family viewing. It doesn't necessarily lend to family viewing. The other thing is. Martin Freeman doesn't exist when this movie airs on T&T. Okay. Do we see Martin Freeman's balls in this movie? I think we do.

I bet what you're probably seeing is hit, what do they call the power? They call it like a safety. pouch or something to preserve modesty. Okay, the modesty. You do see his bush. You do see his bush, but there's the scene where she's sort of on top of him and she's kind of riding him. That's definitely he is covered in something.

It looks like his balls, though. I'm just going to say, the magic of the movies tells me it was like a lot. Joe bought this on 4K viewer, and he is pausing, freeze framing, zooming. He is getting Mr. Skin on this. I just think it's very. funny that there exists a movie that, like, my parents watch every year as part of a tradition. They love this movie. They love this movie, and they love the family stone. And they quote both of them constantly. And they'll, like, you know, watch it with other members of the family

and whatever. It's just like, they love this movie. And I love that it exists this Christmas classic for my parents who are very much, like, not cheeky or, you know, like, you know, they're very straight-laced. And there exists. this Christmas classic that they have where you can maybe see Martin Freeman's balls. And I just love that. I love that that exists. I remember when I showed this to my mother for the first time and being like, this is probably perfect for my mother, but the movie either wins or loses her by the Martin Freeman stuff.

Of course. And it ultimately kept her. The first time that it goes down, she was not happy. So to speak. But then, well, you know. And I got to say, the Martin Freeman storyline, the best storyline of this movie, a genuine mean, cute, very funny, very sweet, very spite what's going on. I think very wholesome. I understand what you're saying in that all of these love stories have some degree or another of completely demented, like, how is this, how is this a love story kind of a thing?

That, I think, fits very well with the Richard Curtis sort of brand, which is, like, romance triumphs over all sort of like, you're better, you're more, you know, rational nature being like, wait, what are, what is that, what's happening here? The prime minister, we're, we're essentially being asked to, like, swoon away over a, what if Tony Blair had a Monica Lewinsky of his own storyline. Well, because this is deeply post-9-11 culture, which means UK relations and American relations, the Tony Blair of it all, this movie is maybe a propaganda piece about U.S. and American relations. One million percent. Because this is also a time where British culture was incredibly popular with Americans and, like, the rom-com audience. This is not only a post-9-11 movie. This is also a post-American Idol comes to America movie. Yes.

Like, there's an essay I can... It's a cross-marketing promotional opportunity between whatever album was the American Idol label. Also, like, there is also an article to be written that just, or like, like these days you'd have like a YouTube video essay or whatever about just about the American characters in love actually and the way that this movie sort of like sees American characters because you have the Laura Linney character who I feel like is the like honorary Brit where like she's American but like she's cool we like her she's good whereas like the you know the girls in the Wisconsin bar Alicia Cuthbert and January Jones

and the other one. And that, of course, like, not to mention Shannon Elizabeth and Denise Richards in the end of the movie, they're all drawn sort of like so garishly. I wouldn't be surprised if they ever saw Donis Richards again. Because she went to the UK. Because she went to the UK. But I, those all feel like they are being written somewhat probably intentionally by Richard Curtis as like, all right, America, you want to make caricatures of us? Like, here's, how do you like it? We're going to make caricatures of you. Yes, but that crowd of around Colin at the bar those are all the women that flock to anything British

at this time period. Right. No, there's a whole thing to be said. Also, I forgot that Alicia Cuthbert was in this movie. I remember the January Jones was in this movie. And of course, Shannon Elizabeth and her wretched cowgirl accent. And Denise Richards

showing up at the end is so random and she kisses so strangely at the end of the movie. It's just, it's, odd. But Alicia Cuthbert shows up in her, like, fingerless gloves and her sort of like razored haircut, remember when like razoring was a big thing? I have seen several seasons of America's next top of all. Yes, I remember razor haircuts. And she shows up, and first of all, I'm like, I should watch some happy endings tonight before I go to bed. And then second of all, I'm like, oh, she's so much funnier than she gets credit for. And I think she's loving this movie. Were you ever a

Happy Endings person? I wasn't. No. I think you would like it. It's very silly and very funny. I liked it. I do have to say Billy Bob Thornton as an American president. Oh, right? And Billy Bob Thornton finishes that essay. Perfect casting. Perfect cast. But like, fascinating in terms of the iconography of it all, right? Because he's like, he's a George W. Bush figure, but without the, in America, George W. Bush is seen as the sort of like bumbling, dumb, Will Ferrell, you know what I mean? Kind of a thing. And it's fascinating to see that from the British perspective, George W. Bush is an obstinate smug, you know, heads I win, tails you lose, figure of sort of bullying tactic. Bullying, yes. Bullying is the word that they use in the movie. So yeah. Well, but also, I mean, this is obviously post-9-11, but mid, it would have been only produced a year and a half. two, not even two years into the Bush presidency when the movie was filmed. So Billy Bob Thornton also kind of has to be a stand-in for Clinton at the same time. There's a little Clinton, obviously, in the fact that, like, he's a womanizer and whatever, like, it is Clinton. But I think it's, like, and that is true, but I do feel like it's a fascinating window into how the Brits saw Bush, as opposed to how we saw Bush. And also maybe a fascinating window into how traveling via Air Force.

might have been different post-9-11 in the UK is in America. Because at the end, when little teeny tiny Tommy Sangster flees airport security, I was watching that scene this time like, oh my God, this child is on a no-fly list forever, this child. Except no, because they never get his name. They just sort of let him go in Liam Neeson's custody or whatever, which is so funny. This is, of course, not the only... In America, that child would have never made it to the Chili's Two, I'm telling you, like... Well, and also, how about, you know, whether she was known as the president's girlfriend or not,

the president's girlfriend breaking free from security protocols and jumping on the prime minister to, you know, make out with him at the end. Like, my goodness gracious. No, there's a lot of wish fulfillment in this movie. Obviously, Hugh Grant is this sort of like idealized version of like, what if Tony Blair was, you know, had a stiff spine and, you know, a charming grin. And apparently traveled through Terminal C, like, does the U.S. Prime Minister of my business class? Right. Why is he on the same flight as all these people?

Why is he coming through the same gate as like fucking Colin Allen who's back, who's back from, you know, America? How long did Colin go to America, too? Because when are we supposed to believe that this return? I think it says one month later. I think we get the superscript that says one month later. So we're end of January. I have like three questions in my mind just now that are so plotty that we should maybe move on to the plot discussion. Okay, that's a good idea.

That's a good idea. That's a good idea. Thanks other than transportation. No, that makes sense. Listener, Merry Christmas, if you celebrate. Merry Christmas. Happy holidays. Joe, Merry Christmas.

We're recording this in November. We sure are. Yep. But Christmas decorations are already going up, up, up, up. Please. My tree has been up for weeks. Nice. I have plenty of wrapped presents.

I feel like so far behind that I'm putting up my tree today. I'm a Christmas person. Yeah. No, I'm such a Christmas person. I just haven't had a second to, like. Like, actually do it. This was not the first Christmas movie I watched. Which, what was?

Well, my mom and I watched Bells of St. Mary's. Nice. I watched something else. I was going to watch Black Christmas and decided I was too high. So I will watch Black Christmas very soon. I bought that 4K. Oh, I want that 4K. Hoping one of my siblings gets it for me.

for Christmas. Great movie. One of my favorite scary movies and one of my favorite Christmas movies. Exactly. It's perfect. I feel like we've talked about this on Mike, but Black Christmas has that quality that is cozy about it while also being terrifying at the same time.

You're not the only person I've ever had this conversation with. It's true. It's like aesthetically cozy. It has like warm lights to it. I guess we also did far from heaven over. on the Patreon. So that feels like a Christmas movie. Actually, Joe, why don't you tell the listeners about our Patreon? Hey, we have a Patreon. We've had it for a while now. It's called This Head Oscar Buzz Tribulant Brilliance. You can find it on Patreon for $5 a month. You will get two bonus episodes

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Patreon page at patreon.com slash this had Oscar Buzz and sign up now. Love, actually. Actually, a movie that does not have any punctuation in the title, even though for years I put a comma after love. I wanted that. It's because that opening voiceover monologue does spiritually put the comma in there. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Hugh Grant, I imagine, much like myself, a friend of the comma. An overuser of the comma. Yes.

Hugh Grant loves an aside. Let's say that. Yes. Hugh Grant and I, we have many things in common. A love of a comma. A love of a parenthetical. Uh-huh. M-Dash fanatic. Semi-colon? Why not? Trying to bumble our words out, big proponents' stands of it, you might even say.

You might even say. Love actually, not a Darlene Love musical biopic, though. Though, you get a drop. Christmas Queen. You get a needle drop in there from the Christmas Queen herself. Yes, absolutely. We'll be talking about needle drops soon enough. Love actually written and directed by recent honorary Oscar recipient, Richard

Curtis. Did I mention that I'm pronouncing Love Actually like Flag Factory? Flag. Yes. I will, I own 51% of this Flag Factory and we will be watching Love Actually. Yes. It's many things. The motion picture stars Simone. If only.

What story would we put Simone in? How has Drag Race UK never done an acting challenge that's Love Actually? They did this season. Oh, did they just ended. This is the season I was telling you to watch. I got to say, Okay, okay. American Drag Race, it's circling the drain, guys, and it has been for a while.

But UK, I think, gets better and better. I just needed a break from all of it. Maybe I'll re-enter the workforce. UK6 is the best season cast, non-all-stars, since maybe season 10. Okay. Like, I think the talent bar is so high. Season 10 was a very talented season. It's maybe not that talented, but like you get the idea that I'm saying.

I do. I do. Yes. Great cast. Great, great cast. You love actually. Starring Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Liam Neeson, Martin McCutcheon, Alan, Rickman, Laura Linney, Colin, Firth, Lucia Moniz, Chitualegi, Chitilajafor, Kira Knightley, a sign holding Andrew Lincoln. Little teeny tiny baby Thomas Sankster Rodrigo Centoro Martin Freeman

Joanna Page Rowan Atkinson Bill Bill Bill Thornton Chris Marshalled January Jones Alicia Cuthbert Shannon Elizabeth and

we did see her again Denise Richards We did What if Denise Richards got the and credit in this movie? What then? Does someone get the ant

I mean it's I can't imagine Somebody does get an ant Maybe Billy Bob Thornton gets the ant I don't know That would be crazy It would be crazy

It would be crazy and yet That feels more width Than it feels and I think the and is Rowan Atkinson Oh that would make all the sense in the world That would make all the sense in the world Yeah Rowan Atkinson who is kind of a Christmas ghost In this movie is sort of how I view him

As a little bit of Christmas present Which is what all retail workers feel like Yeah yes exactly Yeah because he is He works He's trying to the war Alan Rickman buying that

butt-ass ugly necklace for his mistress We've got to talk about how awful if we get that ugly necklace is And what a terrible person that woman is

He's trying to slow him down So that he gets busted Yep And then he He runs interference For the kid Exactly

At the airport He's a Christmas ghost I've decided He's the He's Jacob Marley Sure Maybe that's what Simone would be in this movie.

Simone would be the Jacob Marley that is like... That makes sense. Showing all the poor decisions Alan Rickman makes in this movie. Sure, sure. That storyline, we got to talk about the storyline. We'll get into all of the storylines.

They're all insane. There's so much dementedness in all of this. This was the one that I maybe had the most umbrage with and in ways that will probably be predictable to you and all of our listeners. Understandable, yeah. Movie premiered as a TIF Gala, apparently a work-in-progress TIF Gala.

Interesting. So I'm not sure what differences. If it didn't have the Craig Armstrong score, I don't understand. We're going to talk about the Craig Armstrong score, just like... The legend, the legend that you are. Carves some space. Limited release November 7th before expanding. on November 14th

And, yeah, Love Actually New, you can't even call it a cult classic. This movie was successful on release, but has taken on a ubiquity in the year's sin. I think that's some of the sort of resentment for the movie is I think a lot of people feel like there's a degree of astroturfiness to it, that it's not a genuine sort of ground swell hit. And while I can understand that,

I don't think there's any kind of artificiality to people loving it. You know what I mean? Like, I think it happened sort of quickly, and I think it was probably goosed into that by, you know, the people with financial interests in the movie. But I think people, if people didn't genuinely latch on to the movie, it would have faded into, it would have become a sort of Love the Coopers kind of a thing. Office Christmas Party. Office Christmas Party. We do not have enough time to talk about Love the Coopers. Everyone, just go watch Love the Coopers and have the most demented holiday experience.

I do have to rewatch Love the Coopers this year because it's crazy. Yeah. Nope, nope, not going to say anything about Love the Coopers. I loved watching you in real time have the thought cross your face of like, should I say something about Love the Coopers? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I mean, I think my nearest and dearest will eventually be strapped down to a chair, Ludovico technique style, and I will watch them watch Love the Coopers. That is how crazy that movie is. Oh, my God. Love Actually, Joe Reed, it's time for your 60-second plot description. We can delay no longer, no further. Are you ready? Sure, except I will say, anybody expecting this plot description to be anywhere. near 60 seconds, you are living in a fool's paradise, my friends, and this is going to go where it

goes. So, strap in. All right, then your 60-second plot, description four, love actually starts now. The following events occur in the lives of a loosely interconnected group of Londoners in the five weeks leading up to Christmas 2003. Billy Mack is a washed-up rock star living on the fumes of his notoriety. He's recorded a Christmas-themed version of love is all around in order to succor the British public into making him the Christmas number one over the tiny pricked boybanders of blue. It works, and Elton John invites Billy to his holiday party, but it turns out Billy wants to spring Christmas Eve with the only person he loves his loyal manager Joe. Sarah is an American, and she has been in love with her aggravatingly hot colleague Carl for

the last two years. She finally gets up the courage to make her move on him, and it works. Only their coitus gets interrupted by repeated phone calls from her schizophrenic brother at the mental hospital. When faced with the choice of her dream man or a brother, she loves dearly, she pause. The brother she loves dearly, but probably cannot help. She chooses the Latter. Mark's best friend Peter just married Juliet, and Mark filmed the wedding exclusively and tight close-up on Juliet because he's secretly in love with her, only masks it with low-level hostility. And when Juliet catches on, Mark decides to silently declare love via poster board, and she gives him the kind of thank you for loving me kiss, and then he walks away

to hopefully get over it. Daniel and Sam are mourning the loss of the former's wife and the latter's mother, so it helps when they get a little project they can work on together, namely Sam's all-consuming crush on his classmate Joanna, who was performing at the Christmas concert before going home to America forever. Daniel gives Sam the courage to declare his love, which he does in violation of all manner of security measures at Heathrow Airport. Karen and Harry are married with children and at that point where Christmas and at the point in their lives where Christmas is more

about getting the kids into their lobster costumes for the nativity play than it is about giving each other thoughtful romantic gifts. But when Karen finds a beautiful necklace in a gift box in Harry's coat, she assumed she's finally gotten something romantic. Only on Christmas Eve she gets a Joni Mitchell CD instead and the devastating certainty that Harry bought the necklace for his unimaginable harlot of an employee

Mia. Karen has a good cry to Joni and then gathers to make a good English show of herself though she tells Harry he's been caught. She seems to stay with him for now. David is the newly elected Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and single to boot while he gets glowing press coverage for standing up to the W.S. President of the United States, David Fumbles is growing feelings for his aide Natalie. He first tries to get her transferred elsewhere. But when she confesses her love for him in a Christmas card, he tracks her down in her neighborhood, attends her younger siblings' Christmas card with her, is accidentally

a good uncle to his niece and nephew and then makes out with Natalie in front of the entire auditorium. Tony Blair could simply never. There's also Colin who was determined to travel to America where his doofancy charms will be better appreciated because he'll be English and exotic. He makes it to a bar in Wisconsin, and despite all expectations, his plan works on a trio of girls who loves the way he says buttle. John and Judy, who get to know each other the old-fashioned way during their downtime as Stan Dins on a porn set. And finally, Jamie, a novelist who catches his girlfriend cheating on him with his brother, he retreats to a lakehouse to write where he is confronted with a gorgeous housekeeper who only speaks Portuguese, and despite

the fact that they cannot communicate with each other, they fall in love, and he drops off with the Christmas presents with his awful family and returns to France to propose marriage to her family, who seem to exist on a 19th century hillside where marriages are arranged with stammering English novelists and everyone parades through the streets because dumb Uncle Jamie has found a wife. At the end, everybody converges at Heathrow Airport

and greets their friends, family, loved ones, and Shannon Elizabeth with her awful cowgirl accent and regular people in England and God only knows where we'd all be without love actually. Wow, almost two full minutes over. You know what? Well done. I thought at the end, I was like,

he's going to forget Colin Firth. He's going to forget Colin Firth. He's going to forget Colin Firth. You can't forget Colin Furth. It's the worst one. It's the worst one. I don't think it's the worst one. I hate it.

I hate it. It's bad. I don't like it. No, I think the edgy of four nightly Lincoln one is the worst. Oh, see, that transcends to me. It's one of the most iconic ones because of the sign thing. But I do also think it's the most extraneous and you could fully cut it out of it. You absolutely could cut it out of the movie. By the way, watching the whole movie from beginning to end, I become obsessed with finding out.

how all of these people know each other and like which ones are friends, which ones are co-workers. Who goes to the wedding? Who goes to the wedding? Which ones might be like X's maybe? Like which ones? It's it's kind of fascinating to know that like Emma Thompson alone. Emma Thompson is married to Alan Rickman. She's the sister of Hugh Grant. She is friends with both Liam Neeson and Laura Linney except like she's genuinely friends with Liam Neeson. And it's a little genuinely friends with Liam Neeson. And it's more like she's friendly with Laura Linney because she works with, Laura Linney works with Emma's husband. You know what I mean? But it's, it's sort of that like lower level friendship. What is this company that they work for? What is this company that

Laura Linney would have had to be so skilled and so in demand that she would be an American working for this British company and they would have brought her from the state. And yet she's still wearing those awful sweaters. Not only brought her from the states. I don't think it's necessarily that because, like, her brother is in, you know, NHS, but it's not like whatever institution he's in is so, like, good for his care that she has to go to the UK. Which makes me feel like they'd been living there for a while. Here in the UK because she came to the UK.

That makes more sense to me. See, that doesn't make sense to me because I feel like if that were his situation, there's no way he would have left the United States to go to a hospital in England, whereas like they had to have been living in England a while. I don't know. That maybe is where sort of the logic of the movie falls apart a little bit. You can also kind of believe that this character was not written as American, and Lori Linney's the person that happened to be kind of. Exactly, exactly. Well, she's very good friends with Liam Neeson, so I could understand where, like, you know, maybe, you know, that connection was served there. But then she shows up at the airport to greet who is, it was, it's the, the wedding trio. The thruple, the threeple that should be. She's also the one at the wedding who goes up to Andrew Lincoln and is like, are you in love with him? Because she sees him, like, obviously staring intently. too intently at them dancing and sort of just jumps to the wrong conclusion as it turns out. I don't know.

All of that fascinates me. I think this is a movie that very much invites you to sort of rank your favorite storylines from best to worst. And maybe we can do that at some point. The best is the Martin Freeman. Yeah, see, that's interesting. I get what you're saying and that like it's the most sort of purely romantic one. I just feel like it's so slight that it, you know, it almost feels like cheating to say that that's your favorite. Well, but you need that slightness.

I think you need that, I don't want to say bodiness, but you need that spark of this is something else in this, you know, soup of stories. And it is just so sweet. And I would watch that whole movie. I also feel like you have to almost make a decision that you are going to not. they're going to turn off the problematic detector in your brain to watch this movie. Because, yes, so many things involve subordinates and their bosses in romantic. Yeah, this whole movie is a sexual harassment lawsuit waiting to happen. And also things like, you know, is it Mark just being a horrible friend to Peter?

And should, you know, should at some point Peter be made aware of the fact that, like, you know, Mark is declaring his love to his wife via poster board. Okay, let's talk about this storyline. Okay, let's talk about this. This is also the one that I think, this is a good point to talk about the people who hate this movie. Because this is the storyline that people hang on. And I don't want to be like,

this is the worst storyline and lump myself with all of those people. But, like, I do think it is the most extraneous. But people, like, it's, this is the thing where It's like, yeah, but you are watching a movie. You're not watching movie. You know, people are trying to be like, it is hostile that he's doing this. And, like, yes, if a real human being did this, but this is also a movie that is not trying to achieve realism. This is a fantasy. This is a, this is a Richard Curtis movie.

You have to at some point sort of like let go and let God with it and just, and by God, I mean love. And yes, right, like in a world in which you could nitpick things and, you know, things were problematic. Yes, of course, all of this is, like, deeply unsettling to their oblivious friend. The other thing I keep thinking of is, what if Chappelle Echifor was, like, into Carol Singers? What if he, like, wanted to go to the door? It was like, Carol Singers. I'll go to the door and see what's going on. Like, what's your plan then, Mark?

My British drag queen name Carol Singers. Carol Sares. Wait, that's perfect. Holy shit. I love that. It's great. You can also do Carol drag. You can just be going around leaving gloves everywhere. No, it's perfect. It's perfect. But so I think I look at it from the sort of the Richard Curtis perspective, right? And like, obviously the idea of having this like unrequited love, you are in love with your best friend's wife, fiance turned wife. is sort of classic, but like, I like the idea that Richard Curtis has sort of made the determination, that we are going to follow this story through, and we are not going to end it with any way a satisfying conclusion for Mark, right? Like, that this storyline ends. He declares his love to Juliet. She is essentially like, thank you. This is very sweet. I'm glad that you don't hate. me because this was the impression that I had been getting all this time. She gives him a kiss which, you know, I guess some people

could be like, oh, what's you doing? You know, you're just married. But like, again, we're in a fantasy. We're in a romantic fantasy. This is a sort of putting the button on it, kiss. You know what I mean? Where she's just like, thank you and goodbye. She goes back inside and he sort of walks away and is like, I can't remember what he

says is like enough now or something like that. Right. So it's like the theory is maybe he could move on, but That's the hope. Well, this is the thing is one of the cool things that Richard Curtis does is he leaves enough things open-ended. You hope that Mark can sort of put this behind him and move on and find somebody else. But you don't know for sure. You hope that Emma Thompson, you know, will find some sort of satisfying for her, you know, way to sort of go on with her marriage or get out of the marriage if she wants to or whatever. But, like, that is left very, very much open-ended. Laura Linney's storyline is very, very much left with, like, maybe she can't find love so long as she has, you know, this responsibility in her life as sort of big and serious as her brother. And then some of them end in the sort of, like, storybook fashion that sort of strains credulity like Uncle Jamie and Orrelia. And then, or Prime Minister Hugh Grant and his, you know, his Natalie or whatever. But, like, I love that the stories all run the gamut of, you know, from ridiculously over-optimistic to kind of satisfyingly ragged at the end of them.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, the bittersweet quality is necessary to this movie because if it was just too saccharin, it would be too much. Yeah. This particular storyline, I just think, is so extraneous. It's basically down to three scenes in the whole movie. and that's all the storyline is, like, not, and like Chihuahedgya four has the most thankless role in this movie. Even more thankless than like Shannon Elizabeth or Claudia Schiffer.

Claudia Schiffer should get the Ann credit in this movie, by the way. That is maybe, that's a little bit. It spoils the joke, but. It's, well, and also the fact that, like, Claudia Schiffer gets name checked in the beginning of the movie. She's the Chekhov's model of this movie. Chefer. Schiffor, yeah.

Chekhov's Schiffer. Schifers gun. And all of a sudden she's, but she's not playing, you know, herself. She's playing a woman named Carol, which, by the way, never has a woman looked less like a carol in her life than Claudia Schiffer at the end of this meeting. But so I... She, okay, but like, Chitla Edgiafour doesn't get to do anything except for make a transphobic joke. He wasn't the thing yet, though. That's the thing.

Shibu'll actually... He was becoming one, because Kinky Boots was the next year? Or two years later, maybe. But Dirty Pretty Things was this year, was 2003. So, and this was, you know, this was amid Kira Knightley's, I mean, we talked about Pendant Lake Beckham. This was Kira Knightley's big year, 2003, when she was just sort of Pirates on Caribbean between the two of those.

Yeah. But yes, you're right. He has a completely thankless role. You're totally right. Andrew Lincoln, the sign thing. Andrew Lincoln, who I didn't realize until after Walking Dead was over. Stop it. Really?

Same guy. Yeah. Really? Wow. I didn't, I mean, I didn't watch it. It's just like it's such a cultural thing. Yeah. The sign thing.

Okay. How do we feel about the sign thing? I mean, it's, it's silly. It's, but it's like, it's a Richard Carter's movie. It's a Richard Carter's movie. I don't know if it's toxic. I can't agree with those people. I don't think you're, I think you're really stretched.

It's something that only happens in a movie anyway, but also. Right. I still kind of feel, I feel like worse for the guy after this because it's like, oh, you're going to go through all this. You're, put, well, pull yourself together, man. Do you think, okay. But I think this is pathetic more than anything. Do you think he was doing that in, in any way where he felt like there was a chance that she would, um, leave Peter for him? Or do you think he was doing that as a, you know, just to say it, just to put it on the record, this is what the truth of the matter is, and then...

Oh, no, I don't think it's an attempt at sabotage or thinks that he can sway this woman. I think it's a closure thing more than anything. Right. Her kissing him feels equally silly to me that it's just like, you don't have to do that, I guess. But that's also closure. That's also closure. But also this is my least favorite of the storylines because it's like, well, that's it. We have nothing else to talk about. It is so extraneous. It's maybe the only storyline that couldn't be its own movie. Without this storyline, though, you don't get the cue card thing, which I do feel like on an iconography level is important to this movie. You also don't get Andrew Lincoln storming out of his apartment to the strains of Dido's here with me. And Dido is also post-9-11 culture. aggressively zipping up his quarter zip in a way that almost catches his neck.

And then as he like storms down this alley and he like stops to like scream in frustration, he like startles the fuck out of that man who's walking past him. But it is the most important quarter zip in cinema history. And we have to recognize that. Hate a quarter zip. Hate a hate. Well, then I think we've gotten to the root of why you hate the storyline. It's because he wears a quarter zip.

So dependent on a quarter zip. The whole thing sort of, you know, hinges upon that. All right. Here's why I think Jamie and Aurelia is the worst. I understand the poetry of it. I understand the like sort of, again, this is a Richard Curtis romance. The idea that he doesn't speak Portuguese and she doesn't speak English and they only communicate in the language of love, right? But it's like.

I don't know, I feel like this movie sort of skips a couple steps to the parts where I see why they have fallen in love with each other. Obviously, she's very beautiful. Obviously, he's Colin Firth. You know what I mean? Like, I get it on that level. But I think because this is sort of wedged into a movie that by its nature cannot devote too much time to these things, I feel like this is a story that very, very much needs a little bit of time. to sort of ease our way into these two people who cannot speak to one another and have no meaningful communication with one another to fall in love to the point where he then follows her to little Portugal or wherever the fuck he is in Paris. Yeah, Richard Curtis maybe thinks that Portugal is like Eastern Europe. But it's not even Portugal. It's in France. He goes back to France.

And then it's this little neighborhood in France that's all sort of full of Portuguese people. And it does feel like we're all of a sudden back in like fiddler on the roof or whatever you have. Yeah, it's like Serbia. Like a fucking burrow to walk, you know, across the screen or whatever. I do think that the one scene that it's, you realize they're saying the same things to each other. So they're very aligned. Yes. You know, where he says one thing in English and then in Portuguese, she just repeats it back as in like she's having the same thought.

Yes. That scene does a lot of heavy lifting, and I think it maybe just works less for you. I think that's probably true. I think it just doesn't work. I think because I'm buying the conceit of this movie, I'm like, okay, well, it's checking its boxes with that scene, though. My other thing is, he's just walked in to find out that his brother is having sex with his girlfriend, and then he never addresses this again. Like, this is, like, for a movie that understands the value. of sibling relationships because you have, this is a sibling cinema movie.

You have the Laura Linney storyline. You have Emma Thompson and Hugh Grant, which is that wonderful scene that, you know, people talk about the scene with, you know, the Joni Mitchell album will talk about that where she's Oh, but the scene where she sees her brother is. Where she hugs him and she says, I've never needed to see my big brother so much before in my life. And she hugs him. And it's so touching that this movie can completely sort of like just circumvent the

idea that this guy has been so. horribly betrayed by his brother and then it never gets addressed even a little even when he goes to like drop off his presence with the family the brother is like at the back of a crowd of about 15 people and you barely see his face it's just never addressed again and it's like he's making he's clearly making rash decisions you know this is me sort of like intellectualizing this and I know I just yelled at people for doing that with the other story like he's clearly making rash decisions out of, you know, a sense of betrayal and he has not worked through, like, Jamie, why don't you propose to a therapist instead of your Portuguese housekeeper, is all I'm saying.

Why don't you propose mental health care? A man will literally propose marriage to a woman. He's never spoken meaningful conversation with before rather than go to therapy. That is my review of the Jamie and Orelia storyline. Maybe I would just let Colin Firth get away with so much. Listen, I get it. I get it. I get it. So, you know, there it is. Okay. What else should be talking? Let's talk about Billy Mac for a second. A lovely storyline. I love, again, not unproblematic in that, like, he does expose himself on television to Parkey. And also realizing I did not put Nye in the cast list. Brother, what are we doing here? And it's the best performance in the movie. It's the one that came that came closest to getting some of.

awards conversation, too. I was going to say, there was a campaign. There was a campaign for Bill Nye. It's crazy that he didn't get a nomination. I feel like that's the more getable nomination than even Thompson was. But let's talk about the story. They both should have been. So, okay, so Billy Mac, this sort of like washed up rock and roller, I was trying to think

like who we would be, who we could compare him to some sort of like, I feel like it's sort of, I guess maybe if like Roger Daltrey had gone to seed or something. It's like the top of the pops thing, which is like not necessarily a thing we really have here in the U.S. as a perfect analog. But this is what I'm talking about with like this is post-American Idol makes the transition from England to America culture, where we were at least getting a little bit more of a taste of this idea that the public in real time could sort of find its way to influencing pop. music culture. And like, TRL was sort of a similar thing, but TRL never had like the idea of the Christmas number one. Like, this is a thing that exists only in England. It's a completely foreign concept to us. But I think it's interesting that you have this sort of like, boy band backlash culture, right? Where like he's sort of indulging in this, he's drawing,

you know, that we have small pricks on the poster. Not that body shaming is always the funniest thing, but it is always the funniest thing. There's so much It is the funniest thing to write to. It is the funniest thing to write on any type of poster board ever. Like, we are living in a Is Your Pussy Green era? Like, it is, you know, writing on posters. Careful. That's horribly offensive, Chris. You cannot talk about whether a fictional witch's pussy is green. No, but so, no, you're right about that. There's a lot of body shaving in this movie between his fat manager, between poor Natalie, whose body gets adjudicated over and over and over in this movie. And again, you need to sort of like turn off the problematic switch in your movie, but like there's a lot of that. But so, Billy sort of has to make the press rounds. And this is all very humiliating.

The thing about Billy Mac is he is a caricature of, you know, past his prime, desperate, you know, sort of like pathetic rock and roll, you know, husk. And yet he's so aware of it, he's so aware of it at every turn that it becomes charming, where he's just like, this is shit right, right? As he's like recording the record. And he, you know, he's very aware of just like that this is just a cash grab. And, you know, the song's unbearable. And he's, you know, playing the bad boy thing.

And, you know, he makes the crack about, you know, he shagged Britney Spears, but she was rubbish. Britney Spears jokes, also post-9-11 culture. Very much so. And he does, you know, again, expose himself to, I can't remember, I can't remember Parkinson's first name ever. I just remember the clip where James McAvoy was on, telling the story, speaking of Kiran Knightley, about how Joe Wright instructed them during the sex scene in Atonement, where he says, have you ever seen the clip of McAvoy saying that? I don't think I've heard this. story now.

Kira tells this version of the story on Graham Norton, too, but it's like years later. But the version that McAvoy tells, he's talking about how it's nice when you have directors actually, like, direct you specifically during a sex scene because then all of a sudden it's them, it's, you know, it's the movie making the decision rather than you on your own as an actor, sort of like, you know, improvising, which feels sort of ickier. But he talks about during the library scene where, you know, they're, you know, they're, you know, doing it up against the stacks. And he says, and all of a sudden, he goes, Joe from off of the set goes, all right,

Kira, whank him off. And before he does that, he does that. You have told me this stuff. He, like, can I say this on the air? And he's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, you can say it. Hold on. I'm going to look up what his first. Because this is like this, like, institution.

All done. a TV series, and his first name is Michael Parkinson, of course. Sorry for my Americanness. To all you English people, who I have just sort of slighted. Once again, though, the Brits do chat shows better than us. I mean, Graham Norton should be immediately accessible for full episodes to American audiences. One million percent. We just have to watch the clips on YouTube.

Supercuts on Supercuts of Graham Norton, and we have to make. I just recently had to explain the Graham Norton show to my husband. Oh. How did you do it? How did you nutshell it? I was like, it's just like these three things mash together, but infinitely better. What do you think it is? I've had this question, I've had this conversation before.

What do you think it is about the Graham Norton show that gets celebrities to just be looser, more natural, funnier, tell better stories? I mean, part of it is it's just a thing that builds over time. I agree. It's a vibe. But it is also, it goes back to Graham Norton because Graham Norton, I think, is so good at doing that, like, I am hosting. I am steering conversation, but in a way that feels way more natural than, you know, like, that's all engineered. That's all planned. Totally.

He knows what he's doing. How he's going to incorporate everybody in, but it is not, it's never crunchy, it's not like, and I'm putting on my talk show host hat, you know, he can just be himself and he's very good at, too. He finds the balance better than anybody. Even, like, we're in a, I think we're in a new dawn of talk show hosts in America for at least eccentricity and like each one having their own personality type, especially when you're talking about the, The Drew Barrymore's versus the Kelly Clarksons versus the Jennifer Hudson's, you know, you all get something specific. But I don't think there's anybody quite on his level of naturalism, of making it all flow so beautifully and drawing that out of people. I don't think anyone else is on his level. The other thing is, and I'm not going to like sort of, I'm not outing myself as a feng shui, you know, proponent or whatever. but I do feel like the alignment of the furniture on the set of the Graham Norton show makes a difference.

Whereas I think in America, we're so beholden to this sort of Johnny Carson, Merv Griffin ideal of the desk on one side and the seats on the other, except the seats are in one diagonal direction and the diagonal is leading you towards the desk so that the people on the couches aren't facing each other, they are all facing the host. Whereas in Graham, there's a more sort of like, it's a rounder couch situation. The celebrities are facing each other and are sort of in this kind of like in an alignment that encourages them to talk with each other. And also like Graham's there off to the side and whatever. But it's much, much more conducive to, you know, sort of like, you know, improvised and messy sort of like conversation between the celebs. And that makes a huge difference. All right. Next storyline we want to talk about is...

Oh, no, no, no. Let's not move on from Billy Mack just here. Okay. Because we got to talk about Nye as an awards player. But also just to like close the button on the story. I do... This is one of my favorite stories because, you know, it feels so divorced from the rom-cominess of it.

And then ultimately the reveal is, well, this is a bromantic comedy. It is a bromance. between the two of them. Certainly with that storyline. And I love that how that ends. Obviously, there are ways in which, and obviously, there's the one joke about, like, one hour with Elton John and you're gay as a maple.

But there's, the movie allows these two characters in their own sort of like, you know, a back patty way to express their feelings for each other, their feelings of sort of loving friendship for each other. And I love that. I love that. And it does also end in sex because he proposes that they watch more together. Like, again, open-ended endings to these things. Like, at some point, um, do you imagine that they're just jerking off together to end the holiday? Like, apparently this is a thing that straight guys just do. Not, no. Okay, anyway, um, Bill Nye, the closest thing this movie had to an acting contender, which is kind of it's you're right that it's crazy that it didn't have more of a hook especially when you feel when you look at the fact that like the supporting actor race for the Oscar that year never felt like it was fully solidified and I know that like Tim Robbins sort of became the sort of runaway winner and because I don't like that performance it's probably easier for me to be like well that was just kind of a default win and um

But it did feel like we kept waiting for things to enter the Oscar race, and they just never did. Paul Bettney, you look at the other BAFTA nominees. Well, read off the BAFTA nominees, because Bill wins the BAFTA. Tim Robbins is the only Oscar nominee in the lineup. Bill Nye wins, as you mentioned. Also nominated were Ian McCullen for a recurrent of the king, Albert Finney for Big Fish, and Paul Bettney for Master and Commander. So Paul Bettney was one of the ones that I definitely kept waiting to see him sort of enter the Oscar race. Ditto Peter Sarsgaard for Shattered Glass.

Albert Finney gets the Golden Globe nomination and then obviously the BAFTA, but doesn't sort of see it through. And Big Fish was kind of a disappointing movie, so you sort of understood that. I remember in the late stages of the game in America, I think there was a really, real swell towards the possibility that Sean Astin was going to get a nomination for Return of the King to sort of... Did he get a SAG nomination? No, but when they won the SAG Award for Ensemble, he was the one who gave the speech. And he, because his, I think Patty Duke was a former president of SAG, or maybe John Aston, maybe his father was, but he gave a very sort of like rousing speech in support of unions, essentially, that I think got people sort of

wondering, like, oh, maybe like, you know, this would help him get, you know, votes in the Oscar race, if the voting had even stopped with that. But anyway, I remember people just thinking, like, it's the final chapter. McKellen got the nomination for the first one, but in this third one, the big emotional crux of the story is Sam, you know, ultimately saving Master Frodo and all this. Speaking of bromances. Right. And so what you ended up with...

That conceivably end in a circle jerk. Yeah. But what you ended up with, which did get nominated, like I think Ken Watanabe was probably always going to get nominated. Yes. You got an Alec Baldwin nomination for the cooler, even though nobody saw the cooler. Yeah, that one, I remember it being like,

well, yeah, Alec Baldwin hasn't gotten a nomination before, but nobody watched the cooler, and that movie just didn't go anywhere. And Maria Bello got snubbed in supporting actress for that same role, or that same movie. Benicio del Toro gets nominated for 21 grams, which really felt like a, we need to nominate somebody. He's a former winner in this category. Victory lap nomination. Victory lap nomination.

And then what is your fifth nomination? Robins, Watanabe, Del Toro, Bald. when Jiamen Honsu, which was a surprise, which was a sort of late-breaking surprise nomination for in America. So yeah, this is a year where I think, again, it always- He had gotten that Globe nomination, he would have had a much better shot. But he also wins L.A. critics, which I didn't remember. That's wild. And they put it in with a bunch of other movies that came out in 03 for Nye as well. But, Like Underworld?

Like, what the fuck? You're right. Was it? I don't think Underworld was one of them. Hold on. Let me look up Los Angeles film critics. Um, hold on. It is also a movie called A.K.A., not sure what A.K.A. is, lawless heart, and I capture the castle.

I capture the castle is the only one that I'd heard of. Well, now I'm going to say justice for. for Underworld because why the fuck of all of these movies but not Underworld? They thought it was a bridge too far. Why would you do that? I mean, it's so clearly for Love Actually. Right, right. It doesn't make a ton of sense.

I do think that's the type of thing that if he had been a Globe nominee Yes. It would have, that could have helped translate it to Oscar. But it's not like we hadn't heard of him. He was in that movie still crazy. Right. Remember that? Which was a Globe nominee. I think Best Picture, Musical or Comedy, I'm pretty sure. Yeah. Yeah.

Yes, I think one of the interesting things about, I mean, this is why we did a miniseries on 2003, in part at least, is because everything for as much as the winners in all these categories, sort of like stayed steady. Zell Beger won everything. Robbins won everything. Murray and Penn were, you know, Frick and Frick and Frack throughout the season. And then Charlie. But the nominees, the churn with the nominees was kind of wild. And so so many people who felt at one point or another, like, if not locks, then like huge contenders, like Peter Sarsgaard in Shattered Glass, like Maria Bello in the cooler, or Melissa Leo in 21 grams, I remember. That was like sort of a big thing. Spirit nominee, I believe. Scarlett Johansson in Lost in Translation, like, you know, all of these things. And it just became, it was almost like, you know, when the music stops, whoever's on the stage is that. And that's sort of how it felt like with a lot of this. Let's save Thompson for the last story. Yes, let's.

Okay, so should we talk about Liam Neeson and Thomas Sankster? Sure. This is a sweet storyline. This is a storyline where they watch a clip of Titanic to the line where the line where Liamneeson goes, we need Rose, we need Leo and we need them right now is to me

my version of I'm a man with a very specific set of skills. Like that to me is like what I want Liam Neeson to like whisper talk to me when I'm on the phone is we need Rose, we need Leo. You're about to be taken. Yeah, exactly.

On a cinematic extravagance. I want you to listen very carefully. We need Rose, we need Leo, and we need them right now. Like, that's what I want. I want you to listen to me very carefully. He could have fit on the door. There is enough space for a twinkie out of DeCaprio.

Where's that conversation between Daniel and Sam? Talking about, again, turning off the cancel culture part of your brain, Emma Thompson does try and buck up Liam Neeson by saying, don't be a sissy. which England's, I swear to God, your stiff upper lip thing sometimes manifests in the ugliest of ways. But anyway. It's a cute storyline. The Claudia Schiffer joke is good.

Sure. Nobody talks about this storyline. So every time you rewatch it, it's like Liam Neeson is built very high, but he's, you know, one of the few Oscar nominees in this cast. It's very, again, for a movie, that is very intent on dealing with a lot of different types of, you know, love, right? And obviously, so much of this is, well, Sam is in love with Joanna.

And it's very sort of like, you know, it's, they're kids, and who cares? It's also love is grief, you know? That's the thing is so the real heart of this, if you are watching this with any kind of perspective, is this is Daniel and Sam. I mean, the whole thing ends with him calling him dad, right? You know what I mean? Which does not get very, you know, a ton of focused on it, but the fact that, like, this is a stepfather and his stepson, and they are learning to sort of be father and son. And it is very sweet. While at the same time, you have this kid sort of trying to

not scheme his way, but sort of strategize his way to get this girl to notice him. And he's going to play drums during the Christmas concert. And, you know, whatever, which can I say, can I be mean? Permission to be mean for a second. Of course. The American Junior's level of performance

that is given in that Christmas concert with all I want for Christmas is you is not troubling necessarily, but just noticeable to me that like we are all supposed to to think like this is this great performance and obviously this is a child they're children this is why I asked permission to be mean this is why I asked permission you gave me permission and then you can't revoke permission I'm not revoking permission I'm just saying everybody should get it together and know that these are children American juniors is all I'm saying right sure okay I'm the Jenna Moroni in this situation. I was trying to make a catch-a-falling star and put it in your pocket, Joe. No, I'm the one saying, jump up your mother, which is maybe my favorite joke in all of 30-Rog.

Jump up your mother. And what she also said, congratulations, you're a disgrace. I love that whole episode. It's okay. Yeah, the most that I really had to say about this on this rewatch, it makes sense that this is the storyline that people don't really talk about as much when they talk about this. this movie, especially because, yes, you are very right. This is a movie about all different types of love and love at Christmas time. It is still billed as a romantic comedy, so the least romantic storyline, you know, because its parent-child gets overlooked. But most of my

incredulousness at this story was like, oh, this child is committing a felony. No, I understand. What do you call that in Britain? Felony? Sure. Why not? But they like spell it with a O-U. Fell-O-U-I-E. An I-E is-F-E. Or E-Y. Yeah. Sure. E-Y. Yeah. We're doing the bottle thing, right? Bottle. Yes. I love the way you spell felony. It's so cute. Yeah. The other, the most demented, you sort of brought this up sideways, but I want to bring, want to mention it.

The most demented thing that this movie does in any respect, and it does it repeatedly, is it introduces this idea that Chris, one of the things that you do on Christmas is you are, you employ radical honesty to a distressing degree. So many of these people are like, well, it's Christmas, and on Christmas, you tell the truth. I'm like, in what version of the nativity story did you hear that, by the way? Christmas, on Christmas, you tell the truth. Holidays, that's when you shut the fuck up. On Christmas, a holiday. You shut up. Like, we've just gone through Thanksgiving, where I'm sure both of us had to, like,

not mention that Trump is an awful demon upon this earth, you know, because of whatever family member. Correct. And also the fact that Christmas is a holiday that is predicated upon a pregnant couple seeking shelter. in a, you know, a bar, stables under false pretenses, because she never, you know, reveals the true. The true parentage of her child. And also, um, the holiday with Santa Claus is the one where we are practicing radical honesty here, folks. I just want to like, you know, uh, clear, clear that up. But anyway, uh, Richard Curtis, you crazy for that one. And you don't believe in Santa Claus, Joe?

I'm just talking about the various stories about how he can possibly make it all around the world. I don't know. Don't make me. You know children. These are one of my Proust questionnaire questions that I like asking people. How did you learn that Santa wasn't real? You understand that, like, people listen to this with their children. We've been swearing left and right for years.

I know. I'm only kidding. Um, you said it first. You said that Santa was a lie. Of course I did. Of course I did. No, I'm just... No, answer my question. How did you find out that Santa wasn't real? It wasn't any sort of like big thing. I think it was sort of like a gradual sort of like coming to the realization of like it was a critical mass sort of a thing where enough people at school, you know, said it that I eventually believed it. Um, but I don't remember having any like one specific sort of like, um, you know, moment. I didn't like discover. the presence one year before I found out. Yeah, but you're an oldest child. So, like, did you have to have a talk to, like, keep up on the ruse? No, but what I did was, is I is the oldest, sort of, like, when the other three weren't around.

I think I had this, like, conversation with my parents where I'm like, level with me here. Like, we can, it's just us here. We can be honest. Hello fellow grownups. Essentially, yes. Which is like God. We who do not believe in Santa.

All I am among you. All I ever wanted when I was a kid was to be among the grown-ups. So I had a very much of just like, I'm going to keep cool about it. But like, we can all acknowledge in this space just the three of us. Please acknowledge that I am a grown-up now. Please acknowledge that I am an adult and I am very smart. Well, and we had a, you know, my youngest sibling is 11 years younger than me. So we had a long tale on the Santa thing.

And I remember in the sort of waning years of it, where, because in the waning years, it becomes this sort of like mutually agreed upon lie, you know what I mean? Where the kid eventually is mostly knows. And the parents mostly know that the kid knows, but nobody sort of puts it on front street so that you can sort of like ride out the Santa thing a few more years. But so all of us at that point were in our late teens, early 20s, and all we wanted to be able to do was sleep in on Christmas morning. So we kept being like, at some point, can we just rip the Band-Aid off and tell her so that we can do like gift exchange on Christmas Eve instead of Christmas morning? and my parents were like, no, we are not like artificially doing this.

This is, you know, whenever she, you know, wants to. Poor child's going to think that you're staging an intervention. Honestly, yeah. But once it happened, finally we were like, thank God we don't have to wake up early on Christmas morning. We can do gift exchange on Christmas Eve, which I do, I do tend to much before. Now we, of course, have the nephew. So we have gone back to Christmas morning where we all go over to my sisters and, you know,

Keep up the ruse. Keep up the ruse, but also then do gift exchange when we're all together. We can no longer do Christmas Eve gift exchange, which is too bad because that was a nice little tradition we had for a little while. We would, like, come back from the Christmas party on my dad's side of the family, and we would do like, we would, you know, fix up snacks, put out snacks and hot chocolate and whatnot and open presents. And it was very nice. Very cozy. You know I love a cozy Christmas. All right.

Gary's in the comment section on Patreon. Tell us how you learned that Santa Claus wasn't real. Have we sort of gone in on the all of the Laura Linney thing? How do we feel about the scene where Alan Rickman pulls her into his office and in a work meeting is like... Everyone knows you're in love with Carl. Where is the fucking HR team in this building? Everybody's fucking co-workers. It's the most mysterious business in movie history.

What do they do? What is this? There's like a giant poster that looked travel related. Is this Expedia for the UK? What if Mia is the HR department? What if that is her job? And instead of doing that, she's like dressing up in devil horns trying to seduce. When they say HR is not your friend, they mean Mia.

Okay. So no, no understanding of what this company is that unites. basically half of the cast. I'm choosing to believe that Chuitel Edgia 4 works there, or do we think that Andrew Lincoln and Chewittal Edgia 4 work there? I think Andrew Lincoln. So reading the

Wikipedia page, they do make mention of the Andrew Lincoln, you see there, don't you? He's like the male guy or something. Do you see someone who's a male guy? No, Colin's a male guy. Well, no, but Colin's also a caterer, right? Because he gets fired because Because Julia Davis is the caterer, and he insults her. No, Wikipedia is telling me it's a graphic design company.

And of course, they keep going to these things where, like, it's just these art shows of butt. But it's these, remember, it's all these art shows of butts and also, like, Santa hats on nipples and whatnot. So there's, like, there are art shows. So, like, Andrew Lincoln, Laura Linney, they all sort of work in this. I can, I imagine too much like if we're also works there. Okay, graphic design makes sense because that's like a rom-com job. Like, one million percent. It's not specific.

I work in publishing. It sounds fabulous, but you don't have to explain what it is. That's exactly what it is. Graphic design sounds important, but the conversation ends when you say graphic design because there are no follow-up questions to that. Yep. Yep, 100%. So anyway, Harry, who is the Alan Rickman character, is just the least appropriate boss in history. And he tells Laura Linney, fucking figure it out. We all know you're in love with Carl and we're sick of it. Have we had an opportunity since Hyde Park on Hudson to

discuss Laura Linney on this podcast? Laura Linney, one of my faves. That's wrong if we haven't. Hold on. Let me see. You know what's funny? Or no, wait, that's this, I did the, I went through the actors and actresses tab. Laura Linney, I think, is doing, is great in this movie, but Laura Linney is, you know, doing the heavy lifting to bring this movie some level of...

Totally. Wait, can you give me half a second? I am not shitting on this movie. No, I will join you in the Laura Linne conversation half a second. I am realizing now that I did not go through to make sure that we don't have any six timers and I hope. I don't think the only one who's possible would be,

like Thompson and I think we've done Thompson Yeah, I think we are Hold on, yes, we are definitely We've done a six-timers with Emma Thompson Laura Linney Hugh Grant, no Billy Bob No, Liam

No Um Shewattel, no Nightly fuck is this our sixth nightly it is it's our sixth nightly well

what if the previous nightly's been no we'll just say the next time we do a nightly because we just did bend it like Beckham this is why oh right I feel like on that episode we were like oh we might have no we wouldn't have said it dangerous method never let me go Everest collateral beauty bend it like Beckham and now love actually

Um, wow. Honestly. Sorry. That's okay. No, no, no, no. Sorry, listener. Guess what? You always forget one Christmas present to put under the tree. Yeah. Yeah. We'll have. We already have a game this episode anyway. That is true. And we have a song ranking. So, like, we have a lot going on.

We got a lot going on. This is, by the way, our fifth. Linney, fourth Linney, Hyde Park on Hudson, the fifth estate, house of mirth, and then, now this. I knew I forgot something. Anyway, all right, Kira Knightley, six timers, we'll do it next time. Promises, promises, we won't do it. Turkey, larky time. So, all right, so let's, let's, I love Laura Linney so much. I love Laurenne so much.

She deserves the world. So much to bring Gravitas to this dessert buffet that is this movie. She's, well, and especially because Lord knows, Rodrigo Centoro, an incredibly handsome person, the Paolo of Nicky and Paolo, and lost one of the most unfairly maligned storylines in all of television. But also, Nikki and Paolo was at the point where we're like, okay, let's wrap this shit up. You can't keep introducing new people. Of course. But, like, it wasn't Keely Sanchez's fault. Keely Sanchez, who was also an underrated actor.

Rodrigo Santoro also bringing him to English-speaking audiences, we never did right by him, unfortunately. What was the thing that he was known for before we brought him over? Being hot. Well, okay, yes. He was a model. Is that the thing? He was a model and an actor. Yeah, okay.

But never within, like, the Hollywood system. Obviously, 300. or you get roles like this that are nothing. My favorite was 300 were like, what if he's hot and also 12 stories tall? Okay, cool. Yeah, so he, the last thing I remember seeing him in was Westworld, where he was one of the automaton's in Westworld.

Anyway, Rodrigo Santoro, hot but not necessarily compelling in this movie. So Lorellini really is sort of like, carrying the weight of this, I think the most impactful scene is the one where she visits her brother, and he almost hits her, and she has to, like, physically prevent him from hitting her, and she's just so sweet with him, and she said, don't do that. Christmas is not a fun time for everybody, and I think there's a valuable place for that in a movie life. And yet she's an incredibly good friend. She has, like, many conversations with the other characters in this movie. She's like, she's kind of a lovely character, and she ends, she probably has the most open-ended resolution to this, and that, like, it is no resolution at all. She, you get, you leave this movie with the sense that she might not be able to have a romantic relationship because her, you know, responsibility to her brother will always sort of supersede that. and that's very sad.

What else do we want to talk about before we get into? I think that's all of them, right? We talked about Colin and the ladies. Is this a good time to maybe take a break into the song drop conversation? The needle drop conversation? Yes. Because I think there is a dead last with a bullet,

whatever place that is, 273 of the needle drops in this movie. Who is it? The cover of Songbird that plays during their thwarted sex scene. No, no, no. Terrible. Nope. Terrible.

Terrible. Love that song so much. You know how I feel about the Rumors album. You can't. That cover is bad. You can only. Who's fucking to that? You can.

Well, okay, that's a different conversation. Which is pertinent. Everything could have been different if she'd played maybe the original songbird. If they had played, Songbird at the party and played the Justin Timberlake song while they were fucking, it's a whole different story. It's a whole different conversation. No, Songbird is such a perfect song that you cannot, you can only do so much damage to it with a not ideal cover. And I don't even think the cover is that bad. The song is perfect. I understand situationally. All right. We'll get into it. So what I proposed last night was that we each come up with a top 12 list. of the best needle drops in this movie. There are definitely more than 12. So there are some we are leaving off.

You are leaving off Eva Cassidy's cover of Songbird. I am leaving off Nora Jones's turn me on because every time Nora Jones shows up in a movie in this way, I'm always like, now it is the time where we take a little nap. And I don't. So I have a couple of... Back when you could still buy CDs at Starbucks. That's what, you know, placing this movie into time.

All of my honorable mentions are contemporary songs to 2003 that were basically just used as, as songs tend to, you know, used to be used in movies, which is just like, here's the song that's popular. We're going to do a quick needle drop of it. These include Santana and Rob Thomas's Smooth, which shows up at some point. This includes Justin Timberlakes Like I Love You, which is at the Christmas Party. And the one that I most wanted to rank, you know I do love this song, is The Calling. wherever you will go, which has a sort of lovely little needle drop moment in this movie. All right, so how do we

want to convey these? TRL style, 12 to 1. Okay, but like, am I listing all of my 12 and then you list all your 12? I feel like it's more chaotic the other way. Yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, so my number 12,

Billy Mac's cover of Christmas is all around, which is supposed to be bad, and yet is also good. It is so good. Number 11, Olivia Olson's American Jr.'s-Ass Rendition of All I Want for Christmas Is You. Once again, it is a song that can only be so damaged by a poor cover. It's still very, very good. Number 10, Bay City Rollers Bye Bye Baby, which Liam Neeson plays at the funeral for his wife upon her request. Because, of course, in England, nobody ever wants to feel

sad, so they deflect emotions and they play the Bay City Rollers at funerals. Number nine, Lyndon David Hull's cover of All You Need is Love, which is at the wedding of Shulatil, Adjiafour, and Karen Knightley, as arranged by Andrew Lincoln.

It's a great song, and it's a pretty good rendition of it, and I like it. Number eight is Dido's Here With Me, a song that is very silly in the context that they put it in, and yet I love this song. This was the theme song for Roswell, the great teen drama about aliens, Roswell. The moment where Andrew Lincoln aggressively zips up his quarter zip and almost catches his chin is iconic. And there it is. Number seven, Hugh Grant and Andrew Tinkler's version of Good King Wenceslaus, which is so funny. The double take Hugh Grant does when his

His driver starts singing, good King Wences Laws, is priceless and is why we have a Hugh Grant to begin with. Number six, apparently controversial. I put Eva Cassidy's cover of Songbird, which is a perfect song, no matter who is singing it. Number five is the Beach Boys, God Only Knows. What a lovely song. What a wonderful song. Which also around this same time was the theme song for HBO's, of course, Big Love. Number four,

Darlene Love, all alone on Christmas. It is no slight to this song that it is Darlene Love's second greatest Christmas song. This is the one that appeared in Home Alone 2. It is the best thing about Home Alone 2. It is also the rare Christmas song

that references one's other, even bigger, hit Christmas song. There is a, she title drops Christmas baby, please come home, in all alone on Christmas. It is a banger of a Christmas song. What's his face from the East Street band, does the saxophone solo, and Clarence Clemens, of course. And it's great. Number three, Pointer Sisters, jump for my love. It is in no way seasonally appropriate, and yet it is such a

good song. What a great song to have Hugh Grant dance around to. Number two, speaking of American Idol culture. Kelly Clarkson, The Trouble with Love is not only a great song, not only a phenomenal vocal, but it fits in so well when they put it into the movie. It is just absolutely, it hits you, hits you right in the, it's not even like, oh my God, all the feels. It's just like, it really like mellows you out in this sort of just like, yeah, you know, like, fucking loves more trouble than it's worth sometimes. Number one is the 2000, Joni Mitchell cover of both sides now, which is not only a tremendous work of self-reference, but it is also insanely well deployed in this scene that Emma Thompson breaks down. There's also, Joni Mitchell's River also makes an appearance in this movie, and I sort of like folded that in to the Joni thing because it is not, you don't get too much of it, and I didn't want to like double up on anybody in this list. So that's my list. Right. Number 12, the Maroon 5 needle drops. I was going to say. Okay. All right.

Listen, I clear, my list is clearly going to be more pro Colin. Okay. Joe's, but also half of the movie's needle drops are just like Colin centric. Sure, sure. Understandable. Yep. um my number 11 norah jones turn me on joe reed go fuck yourself uh number 10 the otis redding version of white christmas which i also think is quite well deployed yeah um at a melancholic moment in the film um and then allows for some montage yep number nine back to colin santana roptanous smooth as a signifier of hell yeah we're in a

America Smooth is playing. Yep, yep. Number eight, I also did the funeral by, bye, baby. Number seven, Dido's here with me. Sure, yep. I did jump by the Pointer Sisters at my number six. Okay. All I'm saying is if they use the Pointer Sisters fire instead of the songbird cover,

Laura Linney would have gotten laid. And it would have been my number one needle drop. Joe, what's your favorite Pointer Sisters song? I mean, it's very norm-core, normie. It's, I'm so excited. Oh, okay. It's such a good song. Fire.

Yeah, no, that's a good song, too. That's the one. Number five, I did do the callings wherever you will go. Another call and needle drop, Jovee. Go fuck yourself. I love that song. Shut up. You know I love that song.

Number four, I did the wedding. All you need is love. Listen. I am one who will very easily poo-poo beetles culture, like, let it go. Just let it go, people. Yes, yes, all of it is true, but. Do I get to drop a couple coins in the heteronormitivity jar for you coming out against the Beatles? I don't think it's even heteronormativity at this point.

It's just, yeah, we get it, we get it, the Beatles, we get it. So you're saying you're not looking, and I love the Beatles. You're not looking forward to. annoying about the Beatles. The Sam Mendi's quadrology of of Beatles movies? No. No. Who did they just say? Not excited for all of those people that are rumored to be in it

to have them. Well, there's one that I'm like, that's fine. Who did they just say was going to play Ringo? Barry Keogan is Ringo. I'm in. Barry Keogan's going to be wrapped up. Paul Meskel's going to be wrapped up. Like, let them do something else. They're going to be spending like a year making those things and then a year promoting them. It's going to be four years in a row

of like Oscar, Oscar, Oscar, Oscar. No, they're going to, he wants to release them all at the same time. Oh, at the same time? Well, that's silly. Sam, you're being so. Why? Um, uh, number three, Darlene loves all alone at Christmas. Come on. I mean, I mean. It's a banger. I did, I did number two, the Joni Mitchell, uh, both sides now, knowing that, you know, this scene, for good reason, we'll get into it. Yeah. Has a certain dominance. And I do also think revitalized interests. around that song specifically because this song has now become very ubiquitous in terms of, you know, its use in pop culture. It's amazing how much the meaning of that song changes when you change the arrangement from the original to the sort of more melancholy, bluesy, you know, looking back on your life kind of way. Oh, my God. Incredible. I mean, I love Joni Mitchell so fucking much. This is not an episode where Chris gets down the rabbit hall of Joni Mitchell and what she means to me.

But my number one is Kelly Clark's on The Trouble with Love is because you know what? Sometimes the Trouble with Love is airport security. Sometimes the Trouble with Love is your schizophrenic brother. Sometimes the trouble with love is you buy your mistress an butt-ugly necklace. Sometimes the trouble with love is you are the Prime Minister. Sometimes the trouble with love is you think you might like this person, but you are butt-ass naked in front of them and they are a stranger, but maybe you want to date them. And sometimes the trouble with love is you are a Christmas ghost working in a department store. Wait, go off on the necklace.

I want to hear more about how the necklace is ugly. Well, then we're going to have to talk about that story. Okay, so let's be, we'll save David the prime minister for last. then, and we'll do... Okay. There's a wardsy stuff we can talk there. We'll get into it. Yeah.

Okay, let's do the Mia of it so that we can like... Boo! Boo! She's not even a good, like... I don't... She's the most detestable character in movie history. She's just like Linda Blair in the bedroom of the Exorcist screaming, fuck me. Like, it's just not even a person.

person. She's just not even a person. She's just like, what if your horny DMs anthropomorphized? It's like... They literally have her show up to the Christmas party in a devil costume. It is not a costume party. And yet she's wearing little devil horns because she is a demon sent from hell. You know how much I am very much... I'm always one to sort of try and bust up the gender normative. of the way that we punish women more than men for infidelity. And yet all I have to say is, boo, Mia, boo, she's awful. Get rid of her. I also don't believe that he would sleep with her. She's more annoying than sexy. He never, well, also true, his character, and I don't think this is a Rickman problem. I think Rickman plays the character pretty well.

Yeah, Rickman's quite good in this. Oh, may he rest. But like, it's... great Alan Rickman. I know. I know. It is tough to understand what Harry's motivation here is. I guess you can just because he can. I guess you can sort of connect the dots in that like it's, you know, this, you know, the spark has gone out of the marriage and there's not really, and all of a sudden there's this young woman who seems to be very into him. And yet, you're right. She's so overly aggressive. And he never, like, he sort of takes to getting her a Christmas gift as if it's an obligation that he has to. Like, there's never any sense of him wanting to do this. He sort of is feeling like he's being bullied into, and he doesn't even have an affair, like bullied into an affair-like behavior. The affair jumped out and then it jumped back in.

and um it's like he doesn't even want to really do it we never get the sense that this is something he wants to do exactly exactly right and so when he gets caught and he immediately is like oh you're right i was a fool you know what i mean and he was like and it's just like well yeah like you were and but also just like your carelessness in this matter you ended up like really hurting your wife for no actual benefit. Like, you didn't even, like, get your rocks off here, man. You didn't even seemingly want to get your rocks off here. So, like, what was this all for, my dude?

Like, what exactly? What was, I hope it was worth it, except it clearly wasn't because you got nothing out of this, like a dance, a dance with devil lady Mia at the Christmas party, the satisfaction of like. It ate almost 300 pounds for. say you had to put up with ghost the ghost of mr bean for like five long minutes i mean here's several coins into the heteronormitivity jar but like uh always you know monogamy being the most important an interesting thing about a marriage we don't even learn anything about their marriage their

union etc but apparently like monogamy is the most important thing for them but more so my heteronormitivity jar comment is typical straight man just goes into a jewelry store and buys not only the first necklace he sees, but the ugliest. And it does sort of look like... You kind of want to

be like, Emma Thompson, you don't want that necklace. Like, it's sort of dirty brass kind of a looking thing. It's just ugly. It's like a heart. Like, who wants a heart necklace? Like, no offense to people who want heart necklaces, but like it's just so lazy, man.

come on, like, I ultimately, I think one of the sort of small miracles of Emma Thompson's performance in this movie, which to me is, as much as Bill Nye should have been nominated, Emma Thompson should one million percent be nominated. Right, like, as much as Laura Linney is trying to bring gravitas to this, Emma Thompson really does. Well, it has, like, a very typical Oscar clip scene, you know what I mean, where it's just like the scene where she's, I'm pretty sure the like who's going to be nominated for Oscars thing had in Entertainment Weekly had Emma Thompson in a box like putting her palm to her face to catch her tear. She literally pushes the tears back into her eyes. It's incredible. But and that scene goes on like for a good like good on Richard Curtis for really letting that scene play out. where she, you can sort of like see it go through the, you know, the sadness and the humiliation and the, you know, sort of not knowing what to do. And then, well, the only

thing she can do, she's got this fucking Christmas concert she's got to go to with her. What does she say at one point? She's like my horrid son. She says to her brother at one point, or to Liam Neeson maybe. And so she's got to pull. put herself together. She certainly cannot let on that anything is bothering her. And watching her go through that to do that and then to come out the other side and just sort of like feign enthusiasm for her kids is really incredible. But then there's the scene after when she tells him that she knows what's going on. And she does it in this very sort of like kind of a cool way where she's like, what would you do if you were in my

situation. But then she allows her guard to break down for a little bit, and she says, because he says, oh, I was a classic fool. And she says, but you've made me, you've made me a fool as well. You've made my life that I live foolish. And like that, I mean, Richard Curtis, like, gold star on you for that one, for that line. And then for the delivery for Emma, it's so impactful. It really makes the entire storyline, as frustrating as it is, worth it, because it really lands at this, like, really kind of devastating emotional truth. And then at the airport, she's there with the kids. She picks him up from the airport. He sort of looks at her and he's like, how are you? And she's like, I'm fine. I'm fine. But clearly, she is still, you know, I think figuring it out. I think she's still in a process of figuring it out. It puts an ellipsis on that storyline in such an interesting way that I think a lot of more mainstream intended, easily digestible movies like this are so avoidant of doing. And it's smart on a writing level. It's so smart on a performing level.

She's so good in this movie. And I can kind of see, I hear you that you feel like Emma Thompson is, the even stronger case. And I do think she's the better performance than Nyee in this movie. I just think she's stronger than she's a former Oscar winner. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah.

And yet I still feel like I understand why she didn't get an Oscar nomination for this, but like I think there's more of the formula there for someone like Nye and though like she definitely has a different energy than the rest of her co-stars in this movie. Yeah. There's so much, I guess, centering of what Nye is doing. versus what she's doing is this, you know, surprise element to the movie? Well, it's one of those things where, you know, we talk about this like sense of English stoicism, right? The keep calm and carry on of it all.

And I don't know if I ever really quite understood it in its, you know, in its bones until I saw that scene where I was just sort of like, oh, this is sort of a master class in that. Have you ever seen one of the things that I do every once in a while? is I will go on YouTube and I will watch celebrities sort of eulogizing other celebrities because I'm a psychopath masochist. There is a clip

on YouTube of Emma Thompson speaking at a memorial for Alan Rickman. And then there is another clip of Kate Winslet accepting an award for Steve Jobs the like weekend that Alan Rickman had died. And the two approaches

from the both of them. Obviously, they're, you know, situationally, it's very different, and we're all very different people. But Kate is very sort of free with her emotions, and she asks, you know, everybody in the crowd to sort of like, you know, stand and acknowledge Alan Rickman, and she tells a story about Alan, and she's very sort of free with her tears. And it's a very short speech, but in it she cries like three different times. And then Emma gives a much longer speech, tells like several, you know, sort of anecdotes about Alan, was in reality much closer to Alan Rickman, you know, these sort of like lifelong friends or whatever, long-time friends.

And her objective, and as much as it is to memorialize Alan Rickman, is to keep herself from crying. And so she's so determined to, you know, and so furious with herself when she, you know, breaks at the few moments that she breaks. And it's just, it's, you know, it's this very kind of English sense of, I am failing if I am allowing my emotions to sort of get the better of me. And I feel like that's, that's what she sort of, you know, gets across in that scene. Anyway, highly recommend go check out both of those clips, the listeners, if you haven't. She's terrific in this movie. Yeah, she is.

Um, her brother, first of all, I love that, like, the sense and sensibility of it all, where, like, Alan Rickman is her husband in this. And then Hugh Grant is her brother. Um, so. See, the Laura Linney part, I was like, was Kate Busy? Like, why is this character American? Did they go and make an offer to Kate Winslet for one of these characters? Honestly, that would have been amazing to have the full compliment of, uh, sense and sensibility characters. Sense and Sensibility is so good. Listener, if you haven't watched Sense and Sensibility in a while, I promise you it's even better than you remember. So Hugh Grant plays not only Emma Thompson's brother, which, by the way, I think, throws the entire Mia thing into very sharp relief. Not only is she seducing her boss, she's also seducing the husband of the Prime Minister's sister, who, like, clearly, like, certainly Karen would have had some sort of media. exposure at some point during the run-up to her brother getting elected, right? So, like, part of this is, like, Mia's, you know, kind of a fuck-you conquest or whatever to the Labor Party or something like that, whoever the fuck David represents.

I can't imagine David's a Tory, although who the fuck knows with England? But obviously he's supposed to be Tony Blair, and Tony Blair was not a Tory. Anyway, so David's the newly elected prime minister. he gets introduced to his staff, his butler, his housekeeper, and then Natalie, who is like, and now the pretty one, like now the young one, who's, by the way, totally gorgeous and spends this entire movie getting called fat by various different people. The only person who is like, you know, fully appreciative of, you know, her on a physical level is gross Billy Bob Thornton, the United States president, who just sort of, you know, you know, thinks she's super sexy. Which she is, by the way, like, everybody stop body shaming this lady. Whatever, I'm turning off that part of my brain. What I think is interesting is that it is kind of like a love at first sight kind of thing,

where, like, David, like, meets her and then sort of goes into his office and is like, well, hell. You know what I mean? Well, now I've got a thing for her. And it's just a series of the... sort of like, it's not even like, how would you characterize their relationship up to the point where he requests that she get transferred? It's just a series of like small little, like she brings tea and biscuits to the meeting that he's in. Yeah, it's a lot of glances. It's a lot

of, oh, I'm charmed by this thing, like him being charmed by her, unable to control her swear words. Yeah. You know, it's, it's the, it's the, it's the, it's the, it's the, it's the, spark, the electricity, the feeling of potential that passes between their neurons when they look each other in the eye. It is, it is, like, this is the, this is the storylines that's the true romantic comedy of, like, what this movie is that, like, it almost is its own functioning movie, um, of just like, it is about that. It is about the flirtation. It is about the, like, spark of, if not love it for sight, but that. And because this, once again, is a movie where there's seven or eight different storylines, it has to be so truncated that it just

sort of, you kind of take it for a given that these two have fallen in love with each other on first sight, because otherwise, we have no time to have them fall in love any other way, which is, and I guess that's the same with the Jamie and Orelia storyline. Well, and that there's clear chemistry, et cetera. That's the thing. And she's so charming when she's, you know, she keeps accidentally swearing in front of them. She also delivers, what's the thing she says at the end? Um, where she just goes, where the fuck is my fucking coat when they're leaving the house? So like, clearly that's just sort of Natalie. That's Natalie's most relatable character. But they also sort of like in the scene where

they run into Emma Thompson backstage, which also the interconnectedness of this movie, I think is is charming, but is also a puzzle to me. But I love how in like following this woman to this Christmas concert. He accidentally is the good brother and good uncle to his family, who he was completely planning on blowing off on Christmas Eve or whatever. And, um... Well, and she says, I always send these things to your secretary's secretary. And I never expect he'll actually show. So it's like he probably didn't even know that it was going on. But she also kinds of hangs a, hangs a lantern, I guess is the right maybe term for it, but sort of like draws attention to the fact that like he's much older than Natalie, where she's like, you would

have been exactly his type 20 years ago, which first of all, burn, and second of all, um, like, yeah, like this is, again, we don't talk about age gap, uh, discourse in here because it's stupid. But like, I imagine in the paparazzi press, like, the English tabloids would have had a fucking field day with this woman. Like, I genuinely feel, like, the movie sort of gets out before we get to the part where Natalie has like a nightmarish several years where she is hounded by the English tabloid press forever and the you know the May December nature of their romance becomes you know scandal and whatnot and David's entire term is plagued by you know scandal and eventually she has a fan favorite but mid outrun

on the traitors. Oh, I was going to say Big Brother UK, but yeah, the Traders is a good one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wait, who would be good on Big Brother UK on this cast? Colin.

I'm not a big brother person, so I don't know. So I'm trying to describe it. Have you ever seen the clip, though, of Tiffany, New York Pollard getting told by Angie Bowie that David's dead and freaking out

because she thinks she means David guest, but she really wants to do it. Basically, I would let Gemma know. Well, also that, yes, but the clip where she thinks that David guest is dead, and really, it's Angie Bowie saying that David is dead. And Angie Bowie, with her fucking pigtails being like, oh, she's gone overboard. She's gone crazy. It's so funny. It's so good.

All right. Anyway, so that's all our storylines. We've been talking for a while. I think we got to all of them. that's like the most plot we've ever done on an episode and all of a sudden now we're like two hours into this episode we did skip over that emma thompson was baffed a nominee yes obviously lost to rene zellweger but like the supporting actor lineup that ney was in it's also not super oscarry holly hunter is also nominated for thirteen that's the other crossover yeah and then the other two nominees are laura linnie for mystic river who was very very much that monologue went over much better of her UK, then it goes over here. And Judy Parfit for Girl with the Pearl Earing. I don't remember Judy Parfit

and Girl with the Pearl Earing enough, but I don't remember that movie enough. Yeah, I don't remember that movie. Or Colin Firth also in that movie. Laurelini and Mystic River was like in the Oscar race for a good bit before before it just kind of became

Settled to Marcia. I know a lot of people sort of thought that that monologue was a little too self-consciously, Lady Macbeth, whatever. I just was like go off. queen. That monologue is not her fault. Like, that monologue is... She performs it well. I think she's doing what the monologue asks her to do. Exactly. Exactly. You know, it's, if you have a problem with that moment, you have a problem with the writing. And again, I didn't watch Ozark, and so that's,

you know, my problem. But, like, I would love Laura Linney to be able to get roles like that again, even if it is a little over the top or whatever. Just like, give me Laura Linney in movies again, and I will be happy. How do you feel, this is obviously Hugh Grant in maybe the midpoint of his or the beginning of the end of his rom-com career? Yes. Is this, what's the, what is your go-to

Hugh Grant rom-com? Is it just four weddings and a funeral? I love. Written by Richard Curtis. I love four weddings in a funeral. And I am a little lukewarm, on Notting Hill, so I think even more so. Same. We did an episode on Notting Hill.

We did. And we also were just part of a screen drafts where we did not draft Notting Hill for the bookstore or library draft. Yeah, I'm also not as big of a Bridget Jones's diary person. I know a lot of people are. Love Bridget Jones' diary. And I probably owe myself a rewatch of two weeks. because I only ever watched it right when it was new. So it's been like literally 20 years since I've seen two weeks. Same with music and lyrics. We will not be re-watching Mickey Blue Eyes or whatever happened to the Morgans.

Did you hear about the Morgans? No. No, but you're right. I should watch music and lyrics again. I should watch two weeks notice again. I think About a Boy is incredible. But About a Boy is less of a rom-com for me and more of a sort of more holistic kind of character comedy where

I think him and Nicholas Holtz sort of like learning to you know independently but also together kind of like deal with their lives is much much more the story there rather than

him ending up with Rachel Weiss or you know whatever sort of goes on romantically in that movie it was the time to have nominated Hugh Grant too because Because you forget, he actually, I think you remember that he was in that race more than he ultimately was. A lot of the awards for at least the performers.

Yes. Tony Collette got way more mentioned than he did. But the lead actor race in 2002, we've talked about this recently. Obviously, it really solidified with Nicholson and Daniel Day Lewis. We, you know, Adrian Brody, obviously, win. that award. We talked about this reason because we were talking about Nicholas Cage recently. Nicholas Cage gets a very, very deserved nomination for adaptation. And then I think the easy one is to just pull out Michael Cain. I think Michael Cain's quite good in the

Quiet American, but like that is not a movie that anybody saw or, you know, has any kind of tale to it. Because Miramax buried it and he effectively ran his own campaign and like, right. Aggressively got that movie into whatever theaters it was in. And good for him, but, like, that's the slot where, like, so many other people could have been nominated that year. And I think Hugh Grant, like, that's where Hugh Grant sort of belonged is in that best actor lineup. I won't bring up Paddington, too, because I don't want to have you have a rage spiral.

And it's Christmas. I've become, I've chilled out on the, now that I like Wonka, I'm like, I have my Paddington. Y'all have, you'll go, go forth and prosper. Do you have anything to say about Hugh Grant's chances this year with Heretic, which I feel like, at the point of this episode, you know, it could already be, it could go either way by the time this airs, but. Heretic, I think, is an annoying movie that has its moments. I like the two girls whose names now, I'm going to have to look it up because. Chloe East and Sophie Fatcher. Sophie Fatcher from Yellow Jackets, Chloe East from the Fableman's.

I think they're both very good. I think Hugh Grant is having a good, good old fucking time with a very, you know, sort of indulged character. I think the movie itself is very annoying. I think the movie itself is very freshman year comparative religions class and very proud of itself. It is very first draft. It is that, yeah.

I did not like, I thought that movie was annoying. It's dumb and annoying. But Hugh Grant is quite good at it. I also think Hugh Grant awards buzz for that movie is also kind of annoying to me. I love Hugh Grant, but like, there's not anything particularly special. I'm of a few minds on this. I'm of a few minds on this. I think he's very good.

I think he's very fun. I think he will get nominated for a Golden Globe. That's my prediction that I, by the time you listen to this mail. As a lead, though. As a lead and a comedy, they're pushing Heretic as a comedy. So, yes, I think he will be nominated. as lead actor in a musical or comedy for Herrick Dick because lead is also more appropriate give me a break that movie is a three-hander of course

though are they trying to campaign him as supporting they're campaigning him and supporting that's very silly um I what was I going to say I also feel like if you look at how thin the competition is for actor in a musical or comedy at the globes this year it's he'll walk to a nomination there um I also feel like I like the fact that a studio is getting behind a performance in a horror movie, even if this is, you know... The year of the substance? Well, yes, this is the year. But, like, that's also good.

But, like, I'm glad that, you know, for a while, it's still frustrating that A24 wasn't able to get nominations for people like Tony Collette in Hereditary or Florence Pugh in Midsomar. But I'm glad that they went for it. You know what I mean? for as much as people sort of like roll their eyes at a 24 horror or whatever, they will put their muscle behind campaigns, at least for these people. And I do feel like it sort of helps to move the needle even if the nomination doesn't happen. And I feel like we are eventually going to get a Hugh Grant Oscar nomination. I know that like there's this, you know, I think. Florence Buster Jenkins. People are more and more sort of coming to these stories of like Hugh Grant being a real kind of a pill to people. And, you know, being kind of mean and nasty, but he also, like, you look at him on, you know, the, he's been making the rounds for this. We obviously, when I was, I was there in Toronto. I met, I met him

backstage when I did Katie's Ancler podcast live at Toronto. I got to tell Hugh Grant that Buffalo wings were, in fact, made of chicken, which is my favorite thing that I've ever done. He was, and he was also lovely to you both. He was under the impression. he was under the impression that they were not made of Buffalo as the name suggested, but he thought they were just essentially beef. And I said, no, they are because he's never had it. And I think only he knows of like boneless, you know, boneless wings. He thought they were like little chunks of beef that were breaded in one side. So I sort of gave him the lowdown on why they're called Buffalo wings, because of course, as a person from Buffalo, it is my responsibility. And he was very nice and he was very complimentary when I came off of, came off stage. So all those, you know, You know, everybody, when I said, you know, I met Hugh Grant backstage and said, whatever, I think everybody was like, was he terribly mean to you? And it's like, no, he was great. He was kind of lovely. He's been making the, he's been doing the rounds, you know, sort of dutifully. He had that great. He did the, um, Richard Curtis just won his honorary Oscar. Say that. He won the Gene Herscholt. And he presented it to him and called him an asshole or something. It was, it was a classic sort of, um, roast presentation of an award, and it was very funny. And again, I think he's leaning into a little bit that, like, he's no longer the charming English fop of a leading man as he was

when he was younger. But now he is a little curmudgeonly, like a lovable grouch. And I think that will serve him very well. And I do feel like eventually, yes, the Florence Foster Jenkins thing, he came close. If there was anybody who should have been nominated for that movie, it should have been him. But I think eventually we will get to our Hugh Grant Oscar nomination, hopefully, because I think his, you know, his career deserves it. Maybe he will get a governor's award for a lifetime of achievement one day because he certainly has a career that has warranted it. I just hope it's not for Heretic. That would make me a bigger grouch than most other potential nominees. I'd be very surprised if it was for Heretic. I'd be very surprised if it were. heretic um i kind of wouldn't and part of it is because he is making those rounds yeah and i have this kind of hunch which of course could be completely dead by the time this episode airs yeah i kind of have this hunch you know we're all kind of talking about how diffuse the races yeah but when

these like real stars are showing up it's getting people's attention which is why i think Nicole Kidman is going to have a great season. But that's got to get going. We're here on November 30th as we record this. I'm going to need the baby girl machine to start revving that engine because... I think it's about to. Because we're getting to the point where things are starting to calcify, and I don't want that to happen before... Listen, go see baby girl.

Go see baby girl. I don't want Baby Girl to Iron Claw itself is sort of where another Harris Dickinson and, you know. Oh, it's not going to Iron Claw itself. Like, there's already the trailer out there, that movie. Iron Claw would have been a different thing if it went to festivals. I think the festivals thing is you're right. You're right about that, yes.

And she's already got a trophy for that movie, too. She won in Venice. We shouldn't forget that. That is true. Okay. Thank you. You're assuaging my worries. All right.

May I go through my? But I do think the starry factor shouldn't be on. underestimated this season. No, you're right. And I think Hugh Grant is one of those people I would throw out as an example of it. By the time people listen to this, you may be proven right or wrong. Anything we want to talk about before I run through my notebook and then we move on to the game. Oh, no.

Richard. Wait, we have a Christmas game. Yes, yes, we have. Listeners, you're all watching a bunch of Christmas movies right now. It's going to be a three-hour episode a little bit, much like people do with horror movies. Yes. Christmas and Oscar, what gives? Well, there's actually a lot of Oscar-nominated Christmas movies.

There really are. Some of them are debatable of, is this a movie where Christmas takes place, or is it a Christmas movie? Guess what? I am including a wide range of Christmas movies in here. And we are only scratching the surface because Joe also tried to make a Christmas game.

Literally, I'm there in front of my spreadsheet making a game, as I sometimes do. And I get a text from Chris that says, don't look up Oscar-nominated Christmas movies. I'm making a game. And I'm literally like, I am in process of making a game of the very same topic right now. What did we say the movies that we had overlap on?

I had gotten through, I wrote these down, the apartment, the Bells of St. Mary's, the Bishop's wife, Carol, and Diner. So I had already sort of gone through those ones. So you will not find those movies among this game. First of all, though, how demented that the two of us were on, not only creating a game for this episode, but like that particular, like, avenue, lunatic.

Well, we've never really talked about it. I don't think we really went into it with our other, you know, seasonal episode. I know. Right. So hit me. What are we doing? What's the game? We're doing the Sandy Powell game.

Yay, yeah. We are talking, this is where you have very well nominated artisans, such as Sandy Powell, such as Hans Zimmer. We go through all of their nominations. But this time with the game, we are doing the artist formerly known as Chris Kringle, except we are not doing all of Chris Kringle's Oscar nominations. No, but this is Oscar-nominated Christmas films. This is how the Sandy Powell game goes. It's a series of clues. We'll see how well Joe does.

First clue you're going to get is the year the movie was released. Second clue, the number of nominations the film received. Third clue is how many wins it got at the Oscars. And then the final clue will be the categories it was nominated for. and I guess I'll tell you the winner. Can I guess at every stage? Yes, you can guess at every stage. Okay.

All right. Are you ready? Yes. Sandy Powell game for Chris Kringle. Your first film is 1933. Oh, my God, 1933. Is this like... Is this like a Christmas Carol?

Is this like a very, very early version of a Christmas carol? It is not a Christmas carol. This film was nominated for three Academy Awards. In 1933. Yes. So like one of the first Oscars. Huh. Christmas in Connecticut.

I know that's wrong. Not Christmas in Connecticut. This movie won an Oscar, just one of its three nominations. Okay. Christmas movies. Um, no. Little women? Little women!

Hey! The George Cucor. Little Women starring Catherine Hepburn. It was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, and it won writing adaptation. Can I tell you about Christmas and Little Women is the, the Winona Ryder, Little Women is obviously the one that my siblings and I watched the most, my sisters and I especially. And I will still, every once in a while, get a text from my sister that is just all caps. Merry Christmas, Beth! Because that's Kirsten Dunst sort of like screaming it on Christmas morning in that movie.

Merry Christmas, Bath! All right. Your next film is from 1942. Is this Christmas in Connecticut? It is not Christmas in Connecticut. It was nominated for three. Oscars A miracle on

34th Street Incorrect. It won one Oscar. Um Christmas. It's a wonderful life. Uh, incorrect. Okay, so I can give you your three

This one Do you want the three Oscars it was nominated for? Or do you want the Uh, do you want the Oscar at won? So the three nominations or the win. Give me the win. It won original song for the song, White Christmas. Is it white, no, wait, is that Holiday Inn?

It's Holiday Inn. Okay. You didn't fall for it. It was also nominated for Best Writing, Original Story, and Score. Okay. All right. Your next film is from 1944. 1984.

Is this It's a Wonderful Life? It is not It's a Wonderful Life. This movie was nominated for 10 Oscars. Fuck. In 1944. Oh, damn. So a Best Picture nominee, almost certainly, in 44, we're not doing the Bells of St. Mary's. We're not doing, um, that's not its wonderful life.

It's a big, big, big movie that has to do with Christmas, at least in part. Part, it was called. Passed. Okay. This movie won seven Oscars. Oh, my God. All right. I'll give you a little bonus hint.

This movie could have only one, nine Oscars of the 10 it's nominated for. There's a very famous stat. This movie did something that no other movie has ever done since. And that's because they were like, oh, yeah, we don't have rules preventing this. Oh, was this like one person nominated in two categories? Correct. Is it going my way? It's going my way.

Okay. All right. We don't have bells of St. Mary's, but we do have going my way. My dad loves going my way. Barry Fitzgerald nominated for lead actor and supporting actor, one supporting actor being Crosby, obviously one lead actor. Yes. Your next film is also from 1944.

Okay. So it's still not going to be... It's a Wonderful Life. Christmas movies. Oh, pass. Okay, so it was nominated for four Oscars. 1940s Christmas movie

I should be able to come up with more than nothing. Meet me in St. Louis. Meet me in St. Louis. Hey! All right.

Meet me and St. Louis won no. None of its nominations, but it did win a juvenile Oscar. It was nominated for writing screenplay, cinematography and color, score, and for the trolley song. Your next year is 1946. This is It's a Wonderful Life.

It's a Wonderful Life, nominated for five Oscars, one none of them. It's nominated for Picture, Director, Best Actor, Editing, and Sound. All right. Your next movie is from 1947. Jesus Christ. God damn the 40s. What other Christmas movies? exist

This is this Miracle on 34th Street This is Miracle on 34th Street nominated for four Oscars It won three of them Wow, okay nominated for Best Picture And then won Oscars for supporting actor Writing Original Story and writing screenplay

Okay All right Your next film is from 1954 54 White Christmas White Christmas nominated only for original song for I don't know the song. Count your blessings instead of sheep.

Oh, okay. Instead of sister. Wait, is that from White Christmas or is that from Holiday Inn? It's at least in White Christmas. I don't know if it was original too. Yeah. Next one is from 1961. 61.

Um, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, 61. So 60 was the apartment. We can't do the apartment. So the next year was another Christmas-themed movie. Give me the next one. Nominated for two Oscars. Huh. This is, this is, this is your comment, Vince, for. Or starting that on quiz.

This is my real ones, no. I don't. Give me the next one. Zero Oscars from costume design and score. Wow. Okay. Is this like an elliptical Christmas movie, or is this like a dead-on? No, this is Christmas.

This is Christmas. Christmas, Christmas. Christmas, but there's other stuff going on, too. Is this another a Christmas carol? No. Okay. Christmas, but there's other stuff going on. Christmas, but like, maybe if you hadn't seen it, you wouldn't know that it's a Christmas movie, but like, it's a Christmas movie.

I see. So, like, Christmas isn't in the title. No. Okay. What's the next clue? What do you, there are no next clues. What do you, uh, in your youth, what do you get on Christmas? Presence.

What could those presents possibly be? Toys, Babes and Toyland. Babes in Toiland. Oh, okay. All right, all right. Yeah, that's my real ones. Did you ever see the really bad Babes and Toyland remake with Keanu Reeves? I've never seen any version of Babes.

I used to like that one, too, because I was a stupid child. Your next film is from 1968. 68 Christmas. How many nominations? Seven. Shit. Okay, so 68, 69 is Midnight Cowboy. 68 is a man for all seasons, or was that 60, that was earlier in the 60s?

67 is in the heat of the night. 68 is Oliver? I believe. Okay. So, and how many nominations did you say? Seven nominations. It won three Oscars. The Lion in Winter? Can you say it correctly, please?

The Lion in Winter. No, it's like, the Lion in the Winter. Oh, sorry, right. The Lion in the Winter? Sorry, I was going for the wrong. Nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, It Tide Best Actress, won Adapted Screenplay, nominated for Costume Design, and one original score. Tremendous Christmas movie. I should have gotten it right from the year. Your next is from 1970.

Okay. Um, Patten year. Correct. 1970. How many Oscar nominations? Four. Four Oscar nominations, 1970.

It won zero Oscars. Huh. For Oscar nominations, what Oscar nominations were they? Costume design, art direction, score, and song. For a song called Thank You Very Much. Okay. All right. Thank you very much.

That's my C-plus, Andy Kaufman. That's not bad. Give me another clue. As this quiz has been going on, I've been like Joe's going to be so mad when we get to this one. He's going to be so mad because of things you've been guessing. Is it a Christmas carol? Yes and no. Is it, but it's a version of a Christmas.

Yes, but what is the title? It's, um, It is a musical version of a Christmas carol that is named eponymously. Who is the titular role? Scrooge. Scrooge. The Albert Fennie Scrooge. Right, of course.

Your next film is from 1983. 83. So a Christmas story I don't believe was nominated for anything. No, that was like a razzie winner, I believe. Is this Trading Places? It's Trading Places. Nominated for Elmer Bernstein's Adaptation Score. Yep, yep, yep, yep.

Your next film is from 1988. 88. I don't think Scrooge got nominated for anything. I don't know what it would have gotten nominated for. It didn't. It's not Scrooge's, right? film was nominated for four Academy Awards. Yeah, okay.

Four Academy Awards in 1988. So this is Rain Man, Mississippi Burning, um, Dangerous Liaisons, the accused, um,

88. How many nominees? nominations, did you say? Four nominations. Zero wins. Would you like the categories? Yes, please. Editing, sound, sound effects editing, and visual effects. Visual effects in 88. Is this like a... It's often revisited, often debated if it is fits within the Christmas movie. No, diehard. 88 is diehard. It's die hard. Die hard. Die hard has... Four Oscar nominations. I should have thought of it. Your next film is also from 1988.

Okay. How many nominations did this one get? Just one for Best Makeup. Okay. So, this isn't like Santa Claus the movie or anything like that. No, no, no, no, no. I believe that was also a RASI nominee. 88.

You're going to be mad. Oh, no. Okay. It's Scrooged. I'm going to let you off the hook. It's Scrooge. Was Scrooge to nominee? Okay. I had no idea. For makeup, yes. For makeup. That makes sense. There was a lot of really good makeup in that movie. Your next film is from 1990. This is Home Alone. It's Home Alone. Can you name its nominations?

Song. For somewhere in my memory. Score. Yes. For that banger. John Williams score. Is that the only two? Those are the only two. Yeah. next film is from 1996

96 Hamlet Um 96 Christmas movie Um nominated for one Oscar

Okay Original score Musical or Comedy Is this the Preacher's Wife? It is the Preacher's Wife well done. All right. Your next film,

we're at the home stretch because we're at the year 2000. This is how the Grinch stole Christmas. Yes, nominated for three Oscars, costume design, art direction, and it won best makeup. Makeup. One of the Rich Baker.

Rick Baker. Rick Baker. Oscar wins. Your next film is from 2004. The Polar Express. The Polar Express. Nominated for three Oscars, original song, sound mixing,

and sound editing, not visual effects. Beyonce saying, I believe, or saying believe at the Oscars at the year? She sure did. Your next film is from 2005. Family Stone did not get nominated. It did not. Oh, five. Is this Joya, Newell?

Well done, it is Joya Noel. nominated for Foreign Language Film. All right. Who directed Joya Noelle? Anybody notable? Great question. I didn't put that in my spreadsheet. Great question. I love great question. Your next film is from 2019. Little Women.

Little Women, the Greta Gerwig Little Women nominated for six. It won costume design with nominations and picture actress supporting actress, adapted screenplay and original score. We have come to the final film of the list and it is from 2003. Damn, just last year, huh?

Holdovers. The Holdovers, nominated for five and winning supporting actress, also nominated in Picture, Actor, Original Screenplay, and Editing. Can we watch The Holdovers together at some point this holiday season? Sure. Just text each other during the Holdovers. Sure. I want to watch the Holdovers again.

All right. Good quiz. Good fun quiz. Would have been more fun if I would allow you to have... And, you know, if we included the ones that we had both worked on already, that's a lot of best picture nominees. Also, like, 2017 has several films that are very Christmas adjacent, including Lady Bird. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, I think you made good selections in terms of which movies you counted as Christmas movies. So, well done, Chris. Very good. All right. In terms of my little notebook here, in terms of little notes, let's see. um can you see martin freeman's balls my horrid son um aunt or deck i like that when bill nigh when billy mack refers to the two uh hosts of whatever the top of the pop show as uh aunt or deck um okay we need to talk specifically though about the america has not been a good friend to england scene the sorkan levels of wish fulfillment that richard curtis is writing into that that scene of, because it's not just England, like, we wish Tony Blair would stand up to

the American interests more. It really does try and paint England as the like the little country that could, which is very funny if you know anything about history, like beyond, you know, the latter half of the 20th century, where he's just like, we are a humble nation of David Beckham fans and, you know, sticky toffee pudding. whatever. And it's like, all right, the sun never sets on the English, and the British Empire. Like, come on now. But it was very much this wish-fulfillment fantasy of an England where you could be proud of your PM, you know what I mean? And like, when was the last time that that could be said? And it feels very sort of sorken on the other side of the pond. Or the American president,

actually, it's very much a, my name is Andrew Shepard. And I am. I am the president, yeah. And your five minutes Bob Rumson are up. Yeah, like, it feels very that. So, and I do not be grudged. Bob Brumson's problem is he can't sell it. He can't sell it. I'm going to go watch the American president after this.

Oh, Kira Knightley, a girl who brings you Binafi pie, no wonder he's in love with her, is what I wrote down. What's a Binafi pie? Binafi pie is banana and caramel. Mm-mm. No, I'm into it. Gross. No. Um, quarter zip on the here with me scene.

Oh, the welcome streams of Kelly Clarkson. Completely forgot Alicia Cuthbert was in this movie. What if Shill Wattel had liked carol singers? What if he had answered the door in the first place? Like, figure it out. Where the fuck is my fucking coat? Sibling cinema. Oh, surprise Adam Godley at that Christmas concert.

All of a sudden, hello, Adam Godley. Wonderful. I still remember in Sutton Foster's. Tony acceptance speech for anything goes. Before she talked about her best friend who was going to Kip Kod to be an artist. And it's a great thing. She thanked Adam Godley

and said, it's a pleasure falling in love with you every night. I always thought that was very sweet. American Junior's S. performance, Mr. Bean is the Christmas ghost. Craig Armstrong. The legend of pop girlies goes so far that he won't even let a child

perform the greatest pop song of all time, which is all I want for Christmas's rules. All right. Missed opportunity that this movie wasn't called All I Want for Christmas is UK. Go

to jail. I'm calling the what of it? The Bobby's I'm calling the British police on you. This Craig Armstrong's score. Oh, let's, okay, let's talk about it.

Let's talk about it. This is to me if we're saying you know, that Oscars should award greatness. This is the Great Miss Oscar opportunity for this movie, because this score. What commercials have they been using this for? Like Pure Michigan or something? It's like, it's not Pure Michigan, but it's something.

But also, you know I talk about the 90th Academy Awards from... Yes, using this in the montage. In the montage. And it starts, you know the part in the montage where makes me cry is when they show Anton Yelkin. on the Star Trip Enterprise. And that's right around when they click into this score cue. And it's so perfect. And I'm so petrified that YouTube is going to one day get rid of it that I need to find a way to like permanently download that clip.

Because it's when people talk shit about montages at the Oscars, I want to show that to them and be like, when you talk shit about montages at the Oscars, I want to show that to them and be like, when you talk shit about montages at the Oscars. the Oscars, this is who you're talking shit about. And it's, and it's perfect. It's so lovely. And all it is, it's just like reminding you, it's such, the clips are so well chosen. The editing is so perfect. It's really, really, like, it's, when these are done well, there is no, no heart could possibly refuse them. And so, um, that music is a big, big part of that. And it's like, it's not just the score. I think like it's such a smart score to, because it stands alone on its own and it's this big giant emotional swelling but it does in context conceivably sound like Christmas music yep but outside of the context of the movie it doesn't sound like

Christmas music anything with horns that go off like that like is Christmas is plausibly Christmas a good French horn section yep yep yep yeah exactly all right um anything you want to throw in there before we go into the IMDB game just a little housekeeping for some of the awards that this movie did in case anybody wants to side-eye us beyond the performances. Yes, it was a Globe comedy nominee, as we mentioned in recent episodes. This movie was also nominated at the Globes for its screenplay. Go off supporting Richard Curtis. We cannot, we cannot deny that. Yep. Losing to Lost in Translation, which like, I think another thing we should maybe note, lost in translation happening in the same season,

of this movie means this movie doesn't get comedy points in any way because there's, while, you know, love Sophia Coppola, excuse me, Lost in Translation gets to be the fancy comedy or the snobby comedy. Yes, it does. Which makes this movie look more like, you know, hot dogs and chopped liver versus the champagne of that type of comedy. You know, it makes it harder for a movie like this. when you have proximity to a more high-minded comedy, even though there is not, there is very low comedy in that movie. Also nominated alongside Cold Mountain in America and Mystic River. Can we talk about how this movie somehow lost best British film to touching the void?

Documentary. Documentary. Sorry. Sorry, no. But also Cold Mountain being considered a British film, Well, that's also very funny. Well, I mean, British production, Anthony Mangela, but like American money with... I love when the BAFTAs were so...

And it's still like this in this particular year, because you obviously have the Love Actually nominees. And who is it that Emma Thompson was nominated? Oh, Judy Parfit. But, like, I love when the BAFTAs used to be just defiantly British. And you're just like, we'll allow some other nominees. but first we're going to take care of our folks and I appreciate that. And of course we cannot pass by

mention that this movie was an AARP movie for grown-up nominee for Best Grown-up Love Story. To that, I ask you which love story are you talking about. Something's got to give one. And I would say the other nominee is the movie that should have won and that's a mighty wind.

Great grown-up love story. Yes. Yeah. It's not a love story. that they have to end up back together, but it's, you know, reflective of past love. Actually, no, it's the love story

between Michael Hitchcock and Jane Lynch. Their wing. Which is in nature's colors. Witches in nature's colors will never not be funny. There is problematic stuff in that movie, but I love a Mighty Wind. The way that John Michael Higgins

describes it. Oh, it's John Michael Higgins. It's not Michael Hitchcock. I'm sorry. It's John Michael Higgins, where he just goes... Our beliefs are fairly commonplace and simple to understand. Human kind is simply materialized color operating on the 49th vibration. You would make that conclusion walking down the street or going to the store.

We don't ride around on broomsticks or wear pointy hats. Oh, well. When we don't write around on broomsticks. Perfect, perfect, perfect. I love it so much. And then the way that Jane Lynch can wink. so severely, just like the rest of her face does not move, and her one island just perfectly winks.

Joe, I think at almost three hours of a runtime on an episode, it is time for the IMDB game. Yes. Would you like to explain the IMDB game to our listeners? Not on your life. No, of course I will. Every week we end our episodes with the IMDB game, where we challenge each other with the name of an actor or actress, and then we try and guess the top four titles that IMDB says they are most known for.

If any of those titles are television shows, voice-only performances, or non-acting credits, we mention that up front. After two wrong guesses, we get the remaining titles release years as a clue, and if that is not enough, it just becomes a free for all of hints. All right. How are we doing this today? Would you like to give first or guess first? I'll give first, and I'll hope that I have not picked the same one that you have. So I went into Richard Curtis's filmography.

Okay. Are we still in the danger zone? We're in the danger zone. I looked at all of his movies, and the one we haven't talked about at all, is a movie called, well, it was called Pirate Radio somewhere, and it was called The Boat That Rocked Somewhere Else. Boat That Rocks. Which one? I think it's Pirate Radio here. Is it?

Okay. Yeah, I think in the U.S. it's Pirate Radio. Okay. I think I like Pirate Radio better. The Boat That Rocked just sounds a little, the Englishman, who went up a hill and. came down a amount. We need more of those titles, though. We really do.

We do, but it's not quite as interesting. So that is a movie with a ton of people in that cast, a ton of English actors, one of whom we've somehow never done an IMDB game on, who is one, Mr. Reese E Fons. Oh. Nyad's own, Reese E Fons. Yes. Well, Notting Hill. Correct. Speaking of Richard Curtis.

I feel like Reese Fonz has a Harry Potter, but I'm going to just put a pin in that for now. Enduring Love, the Hot Air Balloon movie that I ride for? No, it is not enduring. Ah, okay. What was that Charlie Kaufman movie he made? Like being human or something. Human behavior or something. I'm just going to guess Nyad. Nyad. It's not Nyad. So you get your years. Your years are 2011, 2012, and 2016.

2011, 2012, 2016. So, wow, these are all pretty recent. Is one of them pirate radio the boat that rocked? It is not. That is earlier than that, I believe. What? Because he had like a normie period where he was working against the like kind of gross. guy typecasts he got for a minute

from Notting Hill. Mm-hmm. Um, okay. Is that in enough time that Harry Potter in the Deathly Hallows part two? No, but that's what you should be guessing because you should always be guessing. But one of them is a Harry Potter. No.

No Harry Potter's. But like, that was still a smart guess. No, he is. He is. He is. He's Luna Love Good's father who shows. Oh, right. Right. But none of those showed up.

Yeah. Um, I'm going to assume these are all British films. There is one franchise movie, there is one British movie, and there is one American movie, besides the franchise movie, which is also American. You definitely probably didn't see this franchise movie. Oh. Is it like a Fast and the Furious? No. It is adjacent to a.

massive franchise, but it is a sort of corner of it that people don't really talk about anymore. So it's not like Marvel. Well. It is Marvel? Yes and no. Annette Benning, 20th century women, yes and no. Like, yes.

Because it's X-Men. No, but you're on the right track. It's Marvel, but not MCU. It's Sony. Yes. Yes. It's not a Spider-Man. No, it's the Andrew Garfield Spider-Man.

It is the Amazing Spider-Man. Yeah, it's The Amazing Spider-Man. He plays Dr. Kurt Connors, aka. Yeah. Oh, nothing memorable of those movies. So two more, 2011 and 2016. So is it the other spider, the second Spider-Man? No.

Okay. No more franchise movies. One of them, I will say, is a movie that, You erroneously guessed, well, sort of. Yes, you erroneously guessed in the Dunkirk or Nunkirk quiz. And it's 2012 or 2016. 2011 or 2016. What would that have been?

It's got some twinks in it then. Is it... But I would not call this like a twink for one. word movie. Got it. It's very high concept. Like, it's very like, hey, what if dot dot dot. And this is the British film.

This is not the American film. Correct. High concept. What if this happened? What if this were true? Oh, anonymous? Anonymous, yes. Anonymous is 2011.

What if Reesufans had really written all of Shakespeare's? greatest words. Maybe I should watch that. Roland Emmerich's Anonymous. Okay, so this other one Oscar winning filmmaker Biopic We've done it.

Oh, from 2016 Biopic. Yes. I know that it's right there. So that means it's at least adjacent in some way to other Oscar movies.

This is the Moonlight Year. What biopics were happening that year that weren't nominated for Oscars would have been and it's an American biopic. I assume it's an American figure. Yes. American politics.

Yes But politics, but something else Yeah It's not Jackie Jackie No No Um

Contemporary Mm Mm Mm-hmm More or less Okay I said I almost said

W W's older than that Um Um Um Um Um, it has a connection to a movie that did win an Oscar that year. No, but not too far away from that year.

I think it was like two years prior. Oscar winning filmmaker, 2016. What's the situation? Oh, it's Snowden. It's Snowden. Snowden. Very good. What got it for you? He's like second build in Snowden. I should have gotten that sooner. Yes, it's Snowden.

When did Citizen 4 win the Oscar? Was it 2014? I think. Okay. I think? Yeah. That's the Still Alice year. Well done, Chris. Thank you. I also went the Richard Curtis route, someone that we've done before, but in like quite literally the first time we did the IMDB game or the second time. Okay. Uh, Andy McDowell. Oh, wow. Is it raining? I hadn't noticed.

Andy McDowell for weddings and a funeral. Correct. Sex lies and videotape. Also correct. Now, nobody remembers green card, but she's right there on the poster, getting slung over Gerard de Pardus. Ugh. Um Magic Mike

Double XL is on the table multiplicity is on the table Uh, Groundhog Day Groundhog Day is correct Will you get a perfect score? Okay, Magic Mike double Xl is on the table multiplicity is on the table Um

probably not like town and country probably not the muse Um Probably not Greystoke, where she has to get dubbed by Glenn Close. What? I didn't know this. I've also obviously never seen Greystoke, so. But you've never heard that story?

Maybe, but... That her accent was so bad that they had to dub her dialogue with Glenn Close. Well. Yeah. I feel like I don't want to, like, just rashly guess. Magic Mike without thinking, like, there's something more obvious. And you have the pressure of a perfect score. That's the thing is I don't want to just, like, throw out things willy-nilly.

She was in a lot of movies in the 90s. She was pretty prolific during that decade. Groundhog Day, Sex Lise, and Videotaped, Four Weddings in a Funeral. I am going to say Magic Mike.com. I'm sorry. You do not have a perfect score for. Randy McDowell. Is it multiplicity?

You're going to get your years. It's 1991. Okay, 1991. 1991 is not green card, so I won't get mad at myself for that. Is it like Grand Canyon? It's not Grand Canyon. I don't think she's in Grand Canyon. No, okay.

Oh, Greystoke is her first build role. Oh, wait. No, it's not shortcuts. Shortcuts is 93. What did you say about Greystoke? It's her first build role. Yeah. I didn't know that.

This is a famous bomb. I mean, not so famous now. No one talks about this movie now, but this was a big bomb. In 91. Is she in Hudson Hawk? It's Hudson Hawk. I had no idea she doesn't. Hudson Hawk is on her goddamn I am doing.

I was just talking about this recently because that movie got Razzie nominated the same year that nothing but trouble, I think, got all those razzy nominations for Demi Moore. I was talking about it on the Demi podcast. Fascinating. Fascinating. We can't end until we get your live thoughts on Andy McDowell's profile photo on IMD. Hold on. You need to look it up right now. It is seasonally appropriate, listeners.

It's kind of like a New York and company holiday window. It's like a Talbot's holiday window. I will say this. She looks very, this is very mother of Margaret Qualley coded this photo. Yeah, she's very much wearing like a Talbot's sort of. Red blouse with an oversized flower. Yes, something's happening on the one-should. shoulder. And a white pant. She's gone fashionably gray, sort of naturally gray. It almost looks

like it should be in an L spread with a giant quote on it that says something to the effect of, I want to be a part of things that are going on. Can you please click on the most recent movie in her IMDB from this year? Something, a sudden case of Christmas. A sudden case of Christmas starring Danny DeVito, Andy McDowell, Wilmer Waldroma, Lucy DeVito, and introducing Antonella Rose in a sudden case of Christmas tagline, as long as there's love, there's Christmas. So we have Andy, not foregrounded.

Foregrounded are Danny DeVito in a Christmas sweater and this little girl we're introducing Antonella Rose. But then Andy is also. also in like a Christmas cardigan and sort of like stooping at the waist like you would greet like a dog, which is also in the poster, or like a small child, or perhaps a Danny DeVito, if Danny DeVito were your husband. Danny DeVito. Danny DeVito. Remember when Andy McDowell was also in the gay, not Hallmark Christmas movie, Paramount Network, it looks like, called Dashing in December. She's basically a gay guy's turquoise lady mom.

Did you write about this for prime timer? I sure as shit did. Hey, I watched that hot garbage. Dashing in December. Amazing. Have you watched Hot Frosty? I'm going to watch Hot Frosty. Oh, no.

I am not, no. I don't have time for this. No. No, I do. I'm making time. I'm making time for Hot Frosty about. I don't know. He's hot and he's frosty.

I think it's like an anthra. I think it's like he's a snowman. It's like Jack Frost with a hot. guy. Yeah, it's like Frosty the Snowman came to life and he's hot. Good enough for me, man. Good enough for me. Listener, Merry Christmas if you celebrate.

That's right. Haven't bought Joe his Christmas present yet. I know. I got to get you something fun. I got to figure it out. Maybe we don't do Christmas presents this year. It'll be fine. We don't do Christmas presents and our Christmas present is we will commit to seeing each other at some point this year.

That's not Toronto. Okay. Yeah, that sounds fun. That's great. Perfect. We did it. Listeners, that's our episode. If you want more,

This Head Oscar Buzz, you can check out the Tumblr at thisheadoscurbuzz.com. Please also follow us on Instagram at ThisHad Oscar Buzz and on Patreon at patreon.com slash this head Oscar buzz. Joe, where can the listeners find more of you? Well, Chris, I'm on the socials as one is. I'm on Blue Sky. I am on Letterboxed both at Joe Reed, read-spelled,

R-E-I-D. I'm also on Patreon with another podcast called Demi Myself and I where I cover the films of Demi Moore one by one

when does this posts? Two days before Christmas. Two days before Christmas. So very recently I will have published my episode on The Butcher's Wife.

Oh my gosh, I have so much to get done. Yeah. Me and Clay Keller are talking about the butcher's wife and plenty of Demi Moore stuff both already there and to come. So it's going to be very exciting. Coming soon, we will have a roundtable discussion of Demi's chances to get nominated for the substance, featuring yours truly, and also Chris File.

I love things to say. I forgot that yours truly doesn't mean this person in front of me. It means me, so I had to amend that. Both me and Chris. Yours and mine, truly. Yes, exactly. Yours, mine, and ours, Chris File. Is me.

You can find me on Letterbox and Blue Sky at Chris FeeFile. That's F-E-I-L. We would like to thank Kyle Cummings for his fantastic artwork and Dave Gonzalez and Gavin Mevious for their technical guidance from time to time and Taylor Cole for our theme music every week. We please remember to rate like and review us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, wherever else you get those podcasts, Five-star review in particular really helps us out with Apple Podcasts visibility.

So give us a perfect rating because to you, we are perfect. That's all for this week. We hope you'll be back next week for more buzz. Happy New Year. Well, not Happy New Year. We'll have an episode on the 20th. Happy holidays. Enjoy.

Yes. You know,