This Had Oscar Buzz - 350 – The History Boys

Episode Date: July 14, 2025

We’re ringing in another year on the pod with our 350TH EPISODE!! In 2006, Broadway imported the National Theatre production of Alan Bennett’s The History Boys, an ensemble piece following a group of college hopeful students and their philosophically opposed teachers. The Broadway production became a Tony record-making sensation. However, prior to the transfer, the … Continue reading "350 – The History Boys"

Oh, oh, wrong house. No, the right house. We want to talk to Marilyn Hack, Maryland Hacks and friends. Dick Poop How do you define history, Mr. Roj? It's just one bloody thing after another. Hit that boy! Hit it! So we shall be meeting again after all.

We're scholarship candidates now, sir. Oxford and Cambridge. It's the hot ticket. in room only. They're clever, but they're crass. You can't polish a turn. And now for some poetry. Most of the stuff poetry's about hasn't happened to us yet.

When it does, you'll have the antidote ready. Grief, happiness. Hello and welcome to the This Had Oscar Buzz podcast, the only podcast hiding a dead body to protect our gay son. Every week on This Had Oscar Buzz, we'll be talking about a different movie that once upon a time had Lofty Academy Award aspirations, But for some reason or another, it all went wrong.

The Oscar hopes died and we're here to perform the autopsy. I'm your host, Chris Fyle, and I'm here, as always, with the Cambridge to my Oxford, Joe Reed. I'm taking that as a compliment, even though I'm not entirely sure. Yeah, I don't know if I'm insulting you or if I am complimenting you because I spent most of this rewatch thinking, okay, so Oxford and Cambridge are the big two. you narrow the field down that much that constantly I'm thinking, okay, so what's the real number one between these two? Well, and so they throw around the names of so many different colleges, several of which are like part of Oxford or Cambridge.

Like, right, exactly. And so, like, I did not have it in me to, like, look up the, like, English higher educational, hierarchy or whatever, but I just sort of decided to go with the flow and go with the context clues of like when they mention a certain like Bristol just sounds like Arizona State or something like that when the one guy's like I went to Bristol or you know Newcastle or something like that's very different here in the States so UK listeners feel free to get at us about this topic of but also like forgive me when I like when my eyes glaze over and I'm just like I'm sure this is also it depends on who you're talking to if you're talking to an Oxford person they're going to say it's better than Cambridge if you're talking to a Cambridge person. Of course. What's the one at Saltburn? Isn't that Oxford? I think so. Oxford? Again, don't y'all does.

I wonder how close they are geographically. Again, but it's multiple colleges, so I imagine it's just sort of like not all centrally located. I mean, you're talking about the UK. Generally speaking geographically close. Sure, but I just mean like, you know, there's close and then there's like, are they like, you know, a 10-minute walk from each other or something? something like that. You know what I mean? Like that kind of a thing. Like, Harvard and Yale are close together.

Yeah. Harvard and Yale are relatively close together, but they're like, you know, you know, that's a hike. You know, you'd have to drive for several hours to get from one to another. But they are like within the context of the United States close to each other. Or all, I went to state school. I am not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not the authority. I went to teen, tea, tiny, T, Jesuit College. So, um, also not the authority. What was the, like, Did you apply to any, like, pie in the sky, like, fancy colleges? And not going in, sure did. Which ones?

I tried to get into NYU and it's stupid. Ah, that's, do you ever think of that as sort of like a sliding doors kind of, you know, do you ever think about, like, the U that went to NYU? No, because that train was never coming to the station. Yeah. You understand. Because, like, I applied to Boston College and, like, and got into Boston College, but Boston College was significantly more expensive.

And I always think of, like, the me that went to Boston College instead of staying in Buffalo. And I thought initially about, like, applying to Harvard. The thing about applying to colleges is you can't just do it on a whim because each application costs money. You have to actually pay per application. So it behooves you to sort of, like, to narrow your, you know, ambitions before you actually apply. So I only applied to, I think, like, four schools. This is also me applying to a bunch of different theater schools. So it's less that and it's more like, well, what's the me who goes to get like a film history degree from a film department somewhere?

You know, that's... The other alternate history for me is like what if... Because like one of the things, one of my most firm beliefs about like the American higher educational system is we ask people to choose what colleges they want to go to at the exact worst time in their lives. like they are they just are not at a point where they understand where they want to go and like i forget even what they want to study this is the thing is like high school should probably be one to two years longer and the last two years be like intensely focused on trying to you know narrow foot like narrow cast you into what exactly your plan is you know what i mean They come in and they give you basically like an MBTI and tell you what career path you should follow.

Because you have so many people getting into so much debt. College is so expensive these days. Like whatever. Like nothing that I'm saying is breaking any new ground. But like, and it's because college is not just a stepping stone to employment or college is not just a, you know, career path or a place to like learn the skills for whatever career you want to go to. college is also like a right of passage for coming of age, right? College has become part of the like... It's an expectation.

I mean, I think it's becoming less and less so because of, as you mentioned, the cost of university learning. But people want like... For my generation, you were expected to go to college. It just, it wasn't a topic for discussion. Well, and there's social, like, social pressures that like, for me definitely exceeded, you know, academic ambition. And, like, I think that applies for a lot of people. A lot of people want to go where their friends are going. A lot of people want to, like, go away to college to have an experience away from home. Like, you know what I mean? Like, that kind of thing. And so

none of this really applies to the history boys, because the history boys is very much about academic ambition and this particular subset of boys who have found identity in their being in the smart set, you know what I mean? So, but like so much of, especially American, you know, youth culture, like, funnels everybody towards college because, like, that's where you go to to, like, you know, spread your wings or whatever for four years. And, Not going to that feels like denying yourself or denying your child, you know what I mean? Like this formative experience. And it's a formative experience that's going to put them in the hole for like 100, 100 grand.

You know what I mean? Once they're done with it. And it's like, if they're lucky. If they're lucky. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Well, and you look at the characters of the history boys because, of course, here we are first talking about the movie. We talk about the ending.

the you know where you have this kind of flash forward thing that makes much less sense in a movie but you can see how it works better on the stage where each of the characters basically say what they go on to do after their college experience i love that scene so much it's so much like not it's so much a theatrical scene it's so much of like a ripped out of a play but like i i i you can see them like forming a line season of love style to be like, this is what I go on to do. I didn't see the production, so I don't know. I know. Same. They actually did. But, like, you have some of them starting their own small business. Some of them end up going into military service and dying.

And some of them work in politics. And some of them work in education. And, you know. Dakin's a tax lawyer. And he's wealthy and different. Right. Some of them is, yes, of course, it makes. sense that you would maybe go on to a higher school to be able to do that.

But for some of the other students, it's like, oh, so it all means this whole hubbub over getting into certain colleges that this whole movie is basically centered around. It is a different type of stepping stone for each individual person, you know, whereas, you know, the process of doing it feels like a homogenous practice you know You're making them all do this For the same reason

But it ultimately has a different effect On all of them Yeah So this is our 350th episode 350, 350. 3-0 And we try to sort of Choose, pick with intention

For these milestone episodes We have in the past done I think our last one was what collateral beauty baby collateral beauty our 250th was glory about no 250th was her smell our 200th I believe was glory about I remember 100 was mother right yeah 50 was bobby what was 150 shipping news great so it's we tend to like pick movies that like you know feel like especially anticipated ones or momentous ones. This one sort of harkens back to a secret period of our history. When we were trying to test out how this would work.

It wasn't even a test. This was supposed to be a real episode. This was supposed to be like our episode three or four or something like that. And the audio turned out to be so poor that we were like, let's just skip it and move on to the next one. And since, we had done, like we had fully recorded a full episode. We didn't really feel like going back and like repeating ourselves again. So it sort of was just like it fell to the bottom of the list. And now five years later. We talked about it in some episodes how we did that. And then we get some listeners being like, well, we don't care. Give us the audio. It is lost. We care. We are paranoid about the people who expect, you know, studio audio with sound engineers, et cetera, when we

or an independent podcast. And, like, if you listen to our earliest episodes, the audio is definitely not up to snuff, like, the audio quality. And also, like, we're still pretty green at it. We're still, you know, coming around. So this is, this was above and beyond. This was, like, pretty unlistenable. And so now that, like, seven years have passed, we've, you know, forgotten what exactly

we talked about and what we thought about and that kind of thing. so now we can sort of experience this movie with fresh brains, fresh eyes. And you say fresh brains, fresh eyes. I got a lot of deja vu watching this movie because I think I had a lot of the same talking points come up, which I guess is good because sometimes with our episodes I worry, was I just in a funk that I, you know, was just on one about one particular thing. But to know that a few years later, I still feel the same way about this movie. So I've seen this movie so many times that I can't quite remember what specifically.

Like, I saw it in theaters, and then I've seen it like, you know, a handful of times since then. I wouldn't call it, like, one of the greats, but it's definitely like a movie that really appeals to me. and I really love the writing. I really – I am very much a person who will take to something that is kind of overwritten like this. Not necessarily overwritten, but sort of just like the dialogue is – you know, you're dealing with characters who are very, you know, sort of like – verbose, loquacious, like intentionally sort of, you know, showing off a little bit. Yeah, there's a one-upmanship at play in the way that these set of people communicate with each other. Yeah, and so it sort of ends up almost being like they're speaking in some oddly, you know, stylized kind of verse.

And I can imagine where, like, some people would be completely allergic to that. And, like, I understand and I get it. But, like, I could listen to Francis Delator, like, monologue in this movie for hours. That is true. She's the best performance in this movie. I love her so much. But I think, and this was such a stage sensation, too, that it's hard to get out of the shadow of that with this movie. I also love that type of overly verbose, overscripted, high on its own supply type of, you know, wordplay in a movie.

What I don't, I don't think that's matched in the direction of the film. That's fair. so kind of loose that, you know, it's not, it's, and I think that's why there wasn't as much enthusiasm for the movie itself. Well, and the fact that this movie was made, uh, as you note in the outline, in between the run on the British stage and the Broadway transfer, um, by the same director, by Nicholas Heitner, um it does lend an air of not exactly indifference but an air of just sort of like there are bigger fish to fry that are not this movie and this movie is maybe not heightner's priority

you know well and they film this movie between the UK production yeah the original UK production because of course it goes back and goes back to the West End and does a production where there's replacements, runs for a while, between the original national theater production in the UK and the Broadway production. Yeah. And then it's released in the fall after the Broadway production closes. Right, right.

But like, kind of immediately after. You know, so there's also this atmosphere of like, well, they've already had theirs, you know. And if it's not really reaching the heights of what we saw on the stage, where's the impetus? to reward something like this. It really does make me, a lot of, you know, film versions of great stage plays make me really envious that I didn't get a chance to see it on the stage with the original cast. This is right near the top of that list. Like, watching this movie really makes me wish that I had seen it because it is a different environment.

It is a different, you know, I imagine this thing got raucous last. after, you know what I mean? Like, there was, you know, just watching these scenes. It's hard to watch a lot of these scenes play out and not imagine what they, what they seemed like, you know, how they were staged in the show. I was desperately searching for some, like, History Boys slime tutorial, whatever, like, all over YouTube and I can't find anything, which is too bad, because I would love to watch it. I really feel like a lot of the movie buries the jokes, too, that I don't know if they were too mindful that movies are a different experience than something on the stage, because it just feels very, very flat in some ways. And there's a lot of scenes where you're watching and you're like, that got a laugh on stage, that definitely got a laugh on stage. But it doesn't get a laugh in the movie. Yeah, I think that's fairly common for, you know, stage plays to movie transfers. Like, it's just very rare that you're able to sort of preserve that, you know, that kind of laugh. And I do end up watching a lot of movies like that being like, oh, I bet that really killed in the room.

You know what I mean? Like, even stuff that is funny in this, like, Rudge's big line about, you know, history. It's just one fucking thing after another, right? And I imagine that was, you know, brought the house down in the, in the theater. As it stands, it's a pretty good line in the movie, too. It's, you know, one of the most memorable ones. But I don't know. There is, you know, there's so much of this that appeals to me.

I love, you know, watching. I think the sort of central story in this is actually really interesting and has a lot of layers. I think it sort of takes from its jumping point these sort of inspirational teacher stories, you know, your dead poet societies, your, you know, goodbye mystery. Paper chases, that kind of a thing. And then there's the line that Francis Delator's character says about how jarring it is when students find out that their teachers are, you know, human beings. and, you know, it's one of our kind of duties is to keep that from happening as much as possible, you know what I mean, to sort of hide our own private lives from these people. And of course, so much of the big sort of more, you know, harrowing plot points in this movie are about the ways in which these incredibly sort of like intellectually advanced, but sort of, um, you know, still sort of like wild and growing and sort of like coming into this really, you know, transitional stage from like boyhood into adulthood, these students, the cross section of it

breeds, you know, chaos in a lot of ways in terms of the private lives of, you know, both the Irwin and Hector characters. And then Francis Delator, who is more, removed from it for reasons both of her own devising and also the fact that like she is a woman and it's this very like male atmosphere in this you know whole thing so there's she's very much at a remove so she is able to be like totally objective about all of this and um all of that really appeals to me all of this sort of the little brief moment where she basically says to all of these students you're not even imagining that a woman's could be on your interview panel for these. Yes. That is a monologue. It doesn't cross your mind. That is a monologue that I imagine got like a prolonged ovation after the whole like history is, you know, women following behind with a bucket that whole monologue, which is also a great line.

But it is a very sort of like, you know, go girl kind of a monologue. So I imagine it got Broadway audiences really, really. psyched. I think there's also an element of we don't see these type of stories on the stage quite as often as we see them in movies that made this movie kind of get overlooked. Yes. You know, because as a movie, it's a lot more familiar. It feels more cliche in what it's doing than it probably felt on the stage.

Oh, we forgot to give the disclaimer at the beginning of this episode, which is, if you're listening to this, do not let any Gen Z folks in your vicinity listen to this or learn about the history boys in any way because they'll fucking freak out. I mean... If Gen Z ever heard about the history boys, Alan Bennett would be in the Hague right now.

It's not as bad as I think all that. you know it's a little limited it does think that all gay teachers want to fuck their students and it's because even samuel barnett who yes in his like closing like thing of this is what i end up doing like obviously that he's a teacher and references wanting to touch the boys but never doing it and it's like i don't but it's a movie i think you would feel maybe a little differently about i don't love that one if that wasn't there well because it truly makes it feel like teachers who aren't even teachers yet want to do that. But this is a movie that blurs the lines between teenage and young adult sexuality.

This blurs the line very intentionally between like a teacher who is groping the boys unwontedly versus a teacher who, you know, one of the students very much wants to, you know, cross his own sort of personal boundaries and have sex with. And I don't think the current younger generations are equipped to handle that, or have much interest in equipping themselves to handle that. Well, I mean, also, the groper teacher does get punished in this. And, of course, it's... Well, punished in a few different ways, in fact. Yeah, punished in the way that, like...

And this is the part where I'm like, ooh, I really don't like... I don't, it feels, you know, 1940s cinema where it's like, evil gay man must be punished by death. But the movie does not present him as an evil gay man, though. It really doesn't. Like, it humanizes that character. Humanizes him, but also really paints him as a sad. Yes, yes. Not, yes, but, like, not evil, but, like, definitely, yes, paints him as a sort of sad, you know, wasted life of a gay man.

I also cannot separate the fact that, like, Richard Griffiths is a, you know, a man of significant size in this. And there is something to that as well, this idea that this, like, you know, you know, sort of like, you know, big fat, you know, quote unquote repulsive teacher or whatever, who they love, who this is, this is the other thing is they adore this guy as a teacher, you know what I mean? Like, they literally, like, put up with all of this other stuff because they value him as a teacher so much, which is, you know, which is a choice, which is definitely like one of those things where I imagine you would have, you know, people up in arms about glorifying a, you know, whatever.

But, I mean, you're right to point out that his size is used as something that, like, just adds to the veneer of pathetic. Yes, yes. but also part of that dynamic of why the students like him is that he he hits them over the head with a rolled up book he leads an unstructured class and that is also something at the heart of what this is about yes i wish it was more about this than the more like basic teacher student go on and be the future stuff because that is less interesting to me than this idea of

teaching to a test versus teaching the fullness of character and being a person that Hector does. Yes. Because like that's the whole idea. He's teaching them now Voyager and French songs and such to make them more well-rounded individuals

and make them have curious minds, whereas Stephen Campbell Moore's character is like, yeah, you can just have a hot take about something, and that's going to make you a more appealing candidate. And all you're really doing is playing to the test, and then you'll get ahead. And he really is teaching hot take culture to these kids. He really is. But he's the Lauren Duka of teachers. Like, it's, you know, it's almost like the, if the history boys was more about that, it would almost have more of a place in the 20 teens than it had in just the 2000, you know. But one of the things that I like about the movie, though, also is that it doesn't sort

of villainize the Stephen Campbell Moore character too much either. Like, definitely, like, you know, it, there is a POV in this movie that is not on his side in terms of all that. But they have that convert, they're, they have that debate about the Holocaust where some of the students are really pushing back against him and saying, you know, scripts, the Jamie Parker character, who is like, you're talking about this as if it wasn't a thing that happened. And Samuel Barnett is talking about, like, you know, I didn't have relatives who died in the, you know, whatever, the Siege of Rome or whatever they're talking about. And Stephen Campbell Moore's character does sort of get a good point in there, which is, if we're

talking about history, a degree of remove, a degree of perspective is necessary, you know, like it or not. You know what I mean? That even something as sort of like emotionally charged deserves to have some sort of dispassionate. And it's not like the movie suddenly agrees with him there, but it affords him a, you know, a little bit of land to stand on in a way. And I think it also does the same thing and the sort of, you know, in the personal realm with that storyline that he has with Dakin, who, like, is, you know, nominally straight. Probably, you know, his Kinsey meter is, you know, wavering during this whole, you know, movie. His Kinsey meter is irrelevant if it gets him attention. Well, right. He's a classic sort of

like... He's the worst kind of teenage boy. Classic narcissistic. He will do literally anything, including gay stuff that he's maybe not interested in. He's interested in it, though. I feel like the movie's sort of like... No, he's not. He wants attention. A lot of people want attention. Not everybody would go to those lengths for attention. Like, there's, there's, there's, it's a spectrum.

I think, I mean, come on. Like, uh, but anyway, regardless, because it doesn't ever, it exists in the subjunctive because it never happens. It's, I don't really know. I, I don't know if I need Alan Bennett to have a side. on this whole, like, should you be, should you, like, know what you need to get ahead and just

execute that? Or should you be a well-rounded person so that it can suit you in whatever happens to you? Yeah. Because, like, he does, like you mentioned, he doesn't villainize one teacher or the other in terms of this philosophy, even when Stephen Campbellmore is like, yeah, you can just say something that might be, at least mildly offensive, because, Because it's going to at least get attention on you. Yes. But, like, then you also have Russell Tovey's character who, like, yeah, he gets into the school everybody wants through nepotism. And he's the one of all of these guys that is constantly written off because whatever.

He's the dumbest. He's the dumbest of the smart kids. Yeah. Yeah, there's classism there, all of it. And it's just, the nepotism element of it makes it feel like, okay, so neither of those philosophies are true. Well, they all end up getting their placements in it, right? And I feel like there's, there's, you know, I think what the movie is telling us is that they, to some degree or another, take something from each of these three teachers that they have, right? and are able to sort of, you know, I think some of them buy into Irwin's, you know, stuff more than others.

I like the fact that certain students, like Jamie Parker's character, like Samuel Barnett, are more resistant to it. They all sort of like, you know, come around to it to some degree or another by, you know, by the time they're having their interviews at Oxford and Cambridge. I also, though, there's so much that has to do with stuff that is beyond my, you know, and probably your experience in terms of just like English, the way that like the, you know, Oxbridge set or whatever sort of informs this classist, you know, system in England, I think, that like we. On top of just like the structure of how, you know, standardized testing happens. But the funny thing is, is they're not, like, yes, there are, there is testing here. But what is, what it's mostly getting them prepared for are these interviews, right? Where they will go and they will speak to, and they have to try to stand out from the pack because, you know, as anybody who's ever tried to, you know, apply to, you know, anything that is significantly high level or whatever at some point, you are, you're all topping out at 100, right? Like, you are in a field where everybody.

has gotten top marks. And so what sets you apart? This is when we get into, in the American system, people, you know, these, this, this manifests as things like the whatever Felicity Huffman, Lori Loughlin scandal thing, right? We're like, Operation Varsity Blues, where they're like manufacturing extracurriculars. They're manufacturing, you know, sports and whatever. And it's these people whose college applications has to have, you know, 20 different extracurriculars and all these sort of, you know, you get that a little bit in the history boys where the headmaster gets the gym teacher, the phys ed teacher to, you know, to instruct them in sport and gets the art teacher

to instruct them in fine art. And it's this very like, well, in the next week and a half, let's get you, you know, one little anecdote that you can bring up on the subject of Michelangelo or, fucking, you know, rugby, and then you can seem like a well-rounded person that these colleges, that these universities would want to bring in. And ultimately, once there is a system in place to try and gamify that kind of thing, to try and like game the system, to try and beat the selection process, then it's, the selection process is worth it. You might as well just have the lottery, right? Because what are you, like, what are, you know, what is ultimately this,

you know, this gaming people, whereas what Hector is teaching these kids and what, to a degree, you know, Francis Deletor is giving them the, you know, the basics, right? The facts, the, the facts of the matter. And then Hector is sort of giving them a little bit of a more worldly education, a more well, you know, that's. actual like well-roundedness versus the kind of fast casual well-roundedness that Stephen Campbell Moore is trying to provide, which is not like, you know, it's not a novel argument, but it is really well dramatized, I think, in this. There's also the element, too, of the school itself trying to inform the, you know, methodology, the philosophy. Because

Stephen Campbell Moore is a substitute teacher who is brought on to basically counterbalance Hector. And to eventually take over for Francis Deloort when she retires. Yes. But, right. So it's like it's the new generation or whatever. But he's also somebody who like doesn't super seem like he wants to even be a teacher long term.

You know what I mean? Ultimately, when they do that thing at the end, they talk about how he's pivoted into, like he's producing news magazines or whatever he's producing you know uh entertainment news program you know kind of a thing um i know i know i know what's sort of like oh you think that just having like the catchiest opinion that grabs people's attention is what matters and you want to be in news entertainment no shit yeah yeah not even not entertainment news news entertainment yeah yes um that's what all that shit is so yeah i think it's a i think it's a rich text, I think, in general. I think it is very well performed. I think having the original

cast who is still in the midst of performing these characters on the stage really makes a big difference. I think that the group of boys are all really, really fun to watch, sort of like, interact with each other. And I think they're all quite good. I think it's not a surprise that a lot of them sort of have gone on to, you know, be in other things, in two different degrees or another. Obviously, like Dominic Cooper has, you know, found success in movies. Would have Mamma Mia next year. Right, right. Two years later, because this is 06, right. Oh, right. It's 08 out of seven. But, like, obviously, James Corden finds his success on the stage, and eventually in late night, Jamie Parker's found his success on stage. Russell Tovey has consistently

worked in television mostly, and, you know, Samuel Barnett pops up every once in a while on something, and I'm just like, oh. Jamie Parker works a lot on the stage. Jamie Parker, in this watch, I was like, aside for Francis Delatorre, he's maybe my favorite in this movie. I love him in this. I think he's wonderful in this movie. I really, really like him a lot.

Yes. That's a character, too, where he's, because his, every one of them sort of gets a little bit of, like, a thing, right? And his thing is that he's very religious. He comes from this, I believe it's Episcopal, very religious upbringing. And he, you know, the very first time we see him, he's getting, he's in church, sort of doing the, the full-on at the kneeler with his, like, head bowed in deference or whatever. And a lot, he has a lot of scenes with Dakin, where sort of Dakin is telling him about his progress with Fiona. They talk about sex a lot.

And he is Valsell. Intentional celibacy, not ejaculating. Right, yes. But when he talks to Dakin about all of this, you can tell that there is envy. I think the thing he's, when Dakin tells him about making the offer to Irwin

to suck him off after term is over. His words. His words. Yes. So, and scripts is like, initially his like, come on, like, you can't be that much of a narcissist or whatever. And Dakin is like, are you jealous? And he's like, no. And he's like, well, I'm jealous of your willingness to do it. You know what I mean? And which, like, me being me, I'm like,

oh, okay, well, like, scripts is queer on some level or another. You know what I mean? Just like, there is something. Why are you doing that? Why are you doing this? Because I am feeling like, Joan Cusack in in and out, running into the street and screaming, is everybody gay? How? This is such a reversal of our normal dynamic, too, which is so funny. Yeah, everyone is gay in this movie, including Clive Marison, who is just like haughty to the maximum, including Francis Delator, because if you're not actually a gay guy, but you are a woman who slays, we claim you. All right. Well, anyway, I'm clearly disgusting. So continue on.

No, I'm not calling you disgusting. It's one of my issues with this script. I know this sounds crazy coming from me, but I'm like, okay, not every teacher can be gay. Not, you know. All right. Let's move on to then, let's get into the meat of the thing. Before we do that, Joe, would you like to tell our. listeners about our Patreon. Yeah, our Patreon is called Turbulent Brilliance. This had Oscar Buzz turbulent brilliance. It has been going for quite a while. Five dollars a month will get you two bonus episodes per month. The first of these, we call an exception, which are movies that fit the usual. This had Oscar buzz rubric of great expectations and disappointing results,

even though they got that Oscar nomination or two or possibly three in the end. Earlier this month, we had our episode on the Tim Burton movie Big Fish. We had plenty to say about that and about Albert Finney and Ewan McGregor and all of that. Previous movies recently have been Neil Jordan's interview with the vampire, Mary Queen of Scots, David Lynch's Mahal and Drive, we've had an episode on Phantom of the Opera

with our friend Natalie Walker, Todd Haynes is far from heaven, et cetera, et cetera. The second bonus episode of every month will be an excursion. These are not movie commentaries, but we talk about our various little movie obsessions and oddities.

We talk about old award shows. We have our mailbag episodes. We talk about old Hollywood Reporter Roundtables and Entertainment Weekly Fall Previews. This month, we're doing a mid-year awards race check-in on the 2025 awards race. Lots of movies have released this year. With a lot of promise, we are post-can film festivals, so we'll talk about what this year's can crop can look forward to in awards season. We are just on the cusp of TIF releasing its full flower and for us to take in, they've already announced five movies that are coming to TIF. So we'll catch everybody up on where we think the awards race is headed, probably make some predictions, and that'll be a real good time.

So that'll come later this month. This, again, can all be found at patreon.com slash this had Oscar buzz. Hooray Joseph the History Boys Directed by Nicholas Heitner Who also directed the play on the stage Written by Alan Bennett based on his play Starring the one and only Richard Griffiths

Francis Delatour Stephen Campbellmore Dominic Cooper Samuel Barnett Russell Tovey Jamie Parker Samuel Anderson James Corden Sasha DeWan Andrew Knott Penelope Wilton you know I perked up when she showed up on screen is like the, is she the music teacher? She's the art teacher, I think.

She's the art teacher, right, yes. I mean, casting Penelope Wilson as an art teacher, it fits. And Clive Marison, the film opened in the UK, October 13th, 2006. State side, it played AFI Fest before opening limited. November 21st, 2006 Thanksgiving weekend. It never reached a wide release. Topped out at 160 screens. This box office weekend, though, this Thanksgiving, what a time to be at the movies.

Happy Feet is number one, followed by Casino Royale, both of them in their second week. Opening behind them, deja vu. Have you seen deja vu? I have not. Deadzell Washington's deja vu. I have not. I have only seen it for the first time this year. Uh-huh.

I love that movie. It's a Tony Scott movie. It is... One of the many Tony Scott Denzel Washington joints. You really think... I'm not even going to describe it for our listeners who haven't seen it. But you really think that it's like, okay, so this is just going to be standard Denzel Washington action movie. It is kind of...

But there's like magic to it, right? Because he like keeps... It's like Groundhog Day about action? I mean, like, it's almost like the collateral beauty of action movies, and I mean that as a compliment. It is a wild movie, and people should go check it out. It is incredibly earnest. It wears its heart on its sleeve, and I love to see that in a big stupid action movie. Uh-huh, uh-huh.

Also opening that weekend in fourth place, deck the halls, making almost $17 million in its opening weekend. Can you imagine a movie like Deck the Hall's opening? to $17 million to deck. Can you imagine a movie like Deck the Halls making $17 million? Deck the Halls is the Matthew Broderick, Danny DeVito, dueling, decorating houses. Yes.

The one where Danny DeVito showed up on the view, drunk as fuck. It's, I've seen this terrible movie. I can enjoy it as a terrible movie. But it's like, today this would be Netflix slop. I know that this is a complaint we have all the time, but truly, this would be Netflix slop today. Yeah.

And it used to make a bunch of money. Yeah, 100%. Ironically. And then non-for Gretchen Wieners, Borat is in fifth place still on its fourth weekend. This weekend, I was in actually New York City, and so at a very, I never get to see these kinds of things in theaters way, because I hadn't moved there yet.

I was just visiting. This was before I moved there. And we saw History Boys in Volver in the same day at two different movies. theaters. And I was in my glory. Two different movie theaters, neither one of which is still open in New York City right now, which is too bad. I saw. What theaters did you see that? Saw History Boys at the Chelsea Theater on 23rd that was variously called, it literally was under like three different management companies while I lived in New York City. But it was the one on 23rd and 8th. And then I saw Volver at the landmark Sunshine Cinema that is no longer there on Houston. Demolish.

demolished for, I believe, a high-rise. Yeah, that makes sense. So, yeah, a lot of nostalgia for that. I really enjoyed that. That was a very fun day. That was, I believe, the day after or two days after Thanksgiving, but it was that same weekend. So good times.

Good times. Also opening this weekend in wide release, but in 10th place, with $5.4 million, Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain. The Fountain, yes, which I saw by the time I was back in the book. to ground level the fountain defenders. Very much so. Very much so.

We got to do that. We got to do that. We might have an opportunity to do it soon since there is an Aronovsky coming out. We can unpack in real time if we have forgiven Darren Aronovsky or not. For the whale? Oh, right. Yeah. I'll always forgive Darrenanoffsky.

I'll always come crawling back. There's too many movies that I loved from him that I can't stay mad. the directorial choices of that movie I think are a good portion of what is so evil about that but I do think the foundation of what is evil about that is Samuel Hunter's script we don't have to get into that I mean a lot of it like Darren Aronovsky does not have a healthy attitude towards people of size I can say that but you know what if I cut off Samuel Hunter has a worse one yeah if I cut off everybody who had bad had bad attitudes about people about fat people I would wouldn't have anybody to talk to. So, um, uh, here we are. Joe, are you ready to give a 60-second plot description for the history boys? Sure. Why not? Uh, all right. Then your 60-second plot description for the history boys starts now. It's 1983. We're in Yorkshire and we are at a preparatory academy of some sort where a handful of the school's best students have, uh, taken their A-level exams and scored high enough that they are hopeful to attend Oxford or Cambridge. And so the

headmaster with stars in his eyes in hopes of getting glory for the school for placing a bunch of kids in Oxford and Cambridge, hires a young teacher, Tom Irwin, to supplement the teachings of Mr. Hector and Miss Lintot to teach these kids about how to score well. their interviews and exams for Oxbridge. And he teaches them essentially to like throw in little quotations and, and, and, ten seconds, counterfactuals and, you know, odd little anecdotes or whatever. And he's definitely opposed to, you know, the teaching style of Hector. While all of this is going on, Hector, who is, you know, old and sad and gay, rides a motorcycle, offers the boys rides home and along the way sort of reaches back and gropes them as a matter of course.

And all the boys sort of know about this and sort of sigh and go along with it or whatever. And in general, they like Hector. But yeah, they approach the exams. Everybody sort of slides a little bit more towards Irwin's. You know, Chris is laughing at me right now. I can't, I don't know. They take the exams. They all get placed, and then Hector gets fired, gets caught by the crossing guard lady, gets fired, and then Dakin gets him hired back again because he knows that the headmaster has been chasing the school secretary around the desk. But then Hector dies in a motorcycling accident anyway, and so is so punished for his. villainy. And yeah, then we have an epilogue and we find out that one of the students died in

military combat. They don't say what military combat, interestingly enough. And yeah, when you see the future, the end. Basically a minute and a half over. You were taking your time. It's fine. We're here doing episode 350. You can take your time. You've earned it. You've done 350 episodes of this madness. Yes. Official episodes, not on top of. of things that were outside of regular format episodes. Yes, that's true. 3.50 official episodes.

Okay, so, did you see this movie in theaters? Were you like... I sure did. So you were like up on, obviously, as somebody who did a lot of theater, whatever, you were probably very up on what was the hot Tony's prospects. And I walked away from my first viewing of the movie, confused why the play was such a big deal. Oh, interesting.

First time we recorded an episode on this, I was confused why the play was such a big deal. And then watching it for this recording, got to say, still confused why the play was such a big deal. Interesting. Interesting. What was it up against that year? What a great question. Let me check. Because at the time, it won the most Tony Awards for a straight play ever. This is also shortly after they introduce or reintroduce, because I know there's been years where they've done it and years where they haven't, they went back, they're doing it again. At the time, it won the most Tony Awards for a play because they were doing lighting design in a play, lighting design, in a music. And it won a lighting, a lighting design prize.

What did they stop doing that? When did they combine those categories? I, I am not the Tony expert that could tell you. No. This is, okay, the other best play nominees are the Lieutenant of Inishmer. Sure, Martin McDonough. Martin McDonough. Rabbit Hole, David Lindsay a Bear.

Shining City, Connor McPherson. I don't know that one. What are the play revivals? Awake and Sing, the Constant Wife, Faith Healer, and Seescape were the play revival nominees. Interesting. So, yeah. So it wasn't a lot of heat competitively for this. Rabbit Hole, I forget if Rabbit Hole was open during the time of Tony voting, but Rabbit Hall, it's always interesting to me that it really only won Cynthia Nixon, a Tony.

And beyond that. Yeah, I mean... I mean, I don't know, because I was not in the city at the time, so it's tough to sort of take the temperature of it. But my recollection... Six Tony Awards of seven nominations. My recollection was that it was just sort of one of these, every once in, not every once in a while, I think it's more often than that. You get these shows that sort of hop the pond from England and come sort of pre-sold and, you know, the Tony voters sort of follow right along. also like a fairly popular hit at the time as well right i don't think it was just yeah they it had an extended run it was like the impossible ticket to get at the time yeah i don't know i get it it seems

to have i imagine you know it had a lot of you know energy and um you know a lot of laughs gives you something we've basically bookended this tony's because what one best musical this year joe jersey Boys. God, that's right. We recently did Jersey Boys. Wow. Well, what a year. What a year on Broadway between Jersey Boys and the history boys. You know, it's interesting. Good year for boys, I guess. I believe it was James Corden. I saw a clip of on the Graham Norton show talking about this show, doing the show on Broadway and how they would constantly hear. They have all these famous people in the audience. It was like the hot ticket in town. You know, they have people like Spielberg and such in the audience but nobody was ever coming backstage to like meet the cast so it's like they're all these

young actors that are having their moment but they're not really you know getting the introductions that sometimes happen on broad like you see this with any yeah broadway show it's like oh merrill was there tonight and cordon was telling the story that it was like right inside the stage door harrison ford's waiting there and he like goes up to him he's like oh like saying all of the usual stuff, and then some type of concierge comes up and says, Mr. Forge, a car is ready. So it's this weird thing of, like, it was a hit thing, but I guess nobody was really, you know, making the effort. Nobody's sliding backstage to flirt with Richard Griffiths, is that what we're saying? So nobody wanted to.

I'm sure there had to have been gay guys needing to talk to Francis Delatour. Sure. she won the Tony right here she won featured actress in a play she sure did the only Tony at lost was a supporting actor for Sam of Barnett who won supporting actor someone from In McDeerbred

from Lieutenant of Inishmore yeah somehow Palpatine returned from Faith Healer oh right I feel like I've seen that acceptance speech recently I've been every once in a while I'll fall down a rabbit hole of you know Tony acceptance speeches this This is a category straight after your heart.

Ian McDeerman wins for Faith Healer. Samuel Barnett nominated for the History Boys. Donald Gleason nominated for Lieutenant Inishmore and both nominated from Awaken Singh, Mark Ruffalo and Pablo Schreiber. Oh, damn. What is Awaken Singh? Is that a Clifford Odette? It sure is.

What is it about, I wonder? Interesting. Isn't that another family play? Probably. Seems so. So, Clifford Odette's is the one that is the Barton Fink. Barton Fink is an analog for Clifford Odets. I believe.

That's cool. I wish I had been more into plays when I was, like, in high school or whatever, when I was younger. It's so tough because, like, you don't really, beyond, like, Shakespeare, you don't really get taught plays. You don't really get, you know. I think it depends on the school I mean like there's the standard stuff I think we were taught Raisin and the Sun like three times Really in high school?

In high school yeah See I had a lot of repeats in terms of literature I learned I was taught Macbeth multiple times Raisin and the Sun multiple times great Gatsby Like four fucking times between like High school, middle school and college Wow We definitely did Gatsby

We definitely did the Lord of the lies. We did, I believe we, I think we got taught to kill a mockingbird, or else I just read it for a reading list kind of a thing. But definitely the only plays we ever read were Shakespeare plays. And so there's a lot of like, you know, theater history. I never learned. I never, I never learned about Eugene O'Neill. I never learned about, you know, these sort of, like, greats, Tom Stoppard, or, you know, and this, this, you know, sort of foundational history of, and even in college, I guess I didn't take the right classes or whatever, but, like, even in, like, I took literature classes in college and, like, you know, nothing. So. Well, they don't teach drama, because it's gay. well sure and I guess in a Catholic school but like what plays are they going to teach

well but they could have taught the Eugene O'Neils I guess like we were in a fucking Jewish enclave or whatever they could have taught us that but they could have done Death of Salesmen yeah right exactly like no none of that it's

yeah it's tough well wait the crucible was a play right Yes. So we got, so we got taught the crucible. That was one. That was kind of the only one. But even still, we didn't get taught that in the context of like Arthur Miller's other stuff. It was just basically we got taught that as like, you know, the allegory of it all. And, um, girl, they're going to start taking away of the crucible because like we were specifically taught that the crucible is a political text about this political environment and this kind of. And this. conservative political environment. We were taught that during the Bush years, and now it's just like, they're, like, you're going to have these conservative, like, these MAGA parents saying that we can't teach the Crucible anymore.

No, the MAGA parents don't care about that shit. It's the MAGA, the ones who care about the, the, uh, our children. But like, it's about McCarthyism and they're going to be like, no, McCarthyism, good. Maga parents are too stupid to understand allegory. Maga parents care about their kids getting taught quick. It's the, it's the, it's the, it's the, it's the ones who, it's the Stephen Millers of the world who want to get rid of anything that acknowledges. Any drama. Yeah, exactly. Any drama. Anything that acknowledges the like fallibility of, you know, the American enterprise or whatever. Again, this is all America, again, we can talk about this, you know, in a little bit, with a little bit of knowledge, because this is all stuff that very much applies to, like, the American experience. And that's, I do feel like the history boys just probably speaks.

far more directly to an English audience, which again maybe sort of feeds into your thing about just like I'm not sure why it was such a hit on Broadway, but I just think we also have a lot of these like teacher student, inspiring teacher student

narratives. But this kind of runs counter to that a little bit. It's sort of, it doesn't like it doesn't undermine that notion, but like it definitely significantly complicates that notion. Again, it's, I think it comes from this starting point. of like, what if these, you know, inspirational teachers

were also kind of tragically flawed in some way or another? And I don't know. I mean, I agree with you in the way that it runs counter, but to, like, a casual moviegoer, you know, they're just going to see, oh, another dead poet society, and they're going to skip the movie. Well, yeah, and that's probably why the movie didn't make any money. also not playing on over

100 screens at any moment probably didn't help things along. Fox Searchlight's also very busy. This is like a kind of low-key great Fox Searchlight year for them awards-wise where this isn't even their big Oscar

snub. They picked up Little Miss Sunshine at Sundance, right? So like that was their plan. Yes. That was the big one. Probably their bigger like this had Oscar Buzz movie because it was closer to a nomination than this is thank you for smoking. Right. Jason Reitman's, thank you for smoking, which got a Golden Globe nomination for

Aaron Eckhart. Did it also get a Best Picture, Musical, or Comedy? I think it's also a writer-skilled nominee. So it was really the screenplay that would have been in play. I was never a huge fan of Thank You for Smoking, to be cool, and honest. I thought it was smug and, you know, a little obvious. But people really liked it. People really liked Aaron Eckhart. Aaron Eckhart's one of those people who, it's surprising that he never got a lot of Oscar nomination in the like 2000s, and now that we are past that, I don't really see

an occasion where he'll get Oscar nominated any time I saw him in something. Yeah, that's a good point. After Sully, did that freeze frame on Sully, freeze frame his entire career? Aaron Eckhart's still stuck there. He's still holding the thumbs up or whatever. They also win the Oscar for Forrest Whitaker in Last King of Scotland.

Big one. That's a big one. They have, and from Canada, Water, as an international feature nominee, and then my favorite in this lineup, Notes on a Scandal. So, Aaron Eckhart's, well, first of all, notes on a scandal, all-time classic. Amazing, amazing, amazing. Since Sully, I'm going to read you the titles of Aaron Eckhart's movies, the Ben Younger film bleed for this that nobody saw with Miles Teller playing

the boxer. Incarnate, which was a horror movie with Karese Van Houghton and Catalina Sandino Moreno. He was in Roland Demerick's Midway, that, again, nobody saw. Line of Duty

where he's it's an action thriller, sure. I'm doing a lot of slow nodding. A movie called Wander. that he co-stars with Tommy Lee Jones, where if you look at the poster, I've never seen anybody look cragier than Tommy Lee Jones at that particular moment. Something called Ambush with Jonathan Reese Myers. Something called muzzle with nobody I've ever heard of.

Something called Rumble Through the Dark. All of these things have the exact same font. These all seem like they were pretty. produced by Randall Emmett. Like, they, like, just... Tommy Lee Jones's craggy face, though.

I think I've seen that poster you're talking about. I do think at this point Tommy Lee Jones's face counts as a national park in terms of topography. Last year, he was in a Rennie Harlan movie called

The Bricklayer. He was in a movie with Olga Kurlenko and Alex Pedifer called Chief of Station. And he was in a movie called Classified with Abigail Breslin and Tim Roth. There's a whole ecosystem of these movies, and certain actors fall into him.

And if you wonder, like, where have I seen that person? So his Rennie Harlan movie this year is this thing called Deepwater that is upcoming. And it's him and Ben Kingsley. And that's kind of it. But, like, I guess this is what Rennie Harlan is doing now. And, like, this is just going to be another one in that bucket. And I feel bad. Aaron Eckhart's a good actor.

Like, he was fucking Harvey Dent in the dark night. Like, he can't have fallen this far, this fast. Maybe he's secretly, like, a pain in the ass to work with and, like, enough people don't want to work with him. Like, I don't want to, like, throw that shade on him for no good reason. But, like, maybe he just likes doing. movies that don't challenge him anymore? Maybe he just was... Maybe he just loves working with Croatian funding, you know? Maybe, maybe. Croatian financiers. Maybe.

But it is a bomb marty. Oh, I guess he played on TV. He played President Gerald Ford in The First Lady, showtimes the First Lady. Remember that one where Viola Davis played Michelle Obama and Michelle Fyfer. A television show that exists only as production still. Michelle Pfeiffer played Betty Ford. No. George. Jillian Anderson played Eleanor Roosevelt. Oh, my God, it all looks so bad. Poor Aaron Eckhart, man, deserves better. Or does he? I don't know. Who's to say? Yeah.

History boys. As an awards contender, I think it quickly, you know, boiled down to Richard Griffiths as an acting nominee and not much else in terms of what a chance of. Well, he's the one who's like so well known because of the Harry Potter movies. But his role in the Harry Potter movies is he's there for the first scene of every Harry Potter movie and then not seen again for the rest of the movie. Do you know what I mean? So it's like it's interesting with Richard Griffith because I do feel like he's quite good in the history boys. But especially when you're talking about it as a movie, it is not a character you warm up to. And I think it's interesting because he is, he should be a character you sympathize with more than you do, maybe. I don't know.

I have a hard time with it. I have a hard time with... I imagine that some of his monologues are given so much more space on the stage than they are in the movie. Because, like, his biggest moments in this movie feel really rushed to me in a way that you can't really savor the performance and see what he's doing and, like, really witness his character arc through this story. I feel like that's one of the flaws of the movie. It's just, like, it really doesn't know what to draw our attention to and, like, let us enjoy these performances. I feel like the biggest, like, moment of the movie is Francis Della Tours monologue, which is great, and, like, she's my favorite performance in this movie, but it's also partly because she's the performance that feels like it's actually being spotlit. I don't think that he gets appropriate, like, for what the text, like, calls for.

And this also goes to, like, how this was campaigned. He was considered a lead role on the stage. And then there's this category confusion situation that happens in the film's campaign where they end up pushing him for supporting. Right. And, you know, that was one of those cases where people were like, no, he's elite. This is, they're just trying to get the nomination out of this where, you know, best actor is more competitive. I don't know if I really agree with that sentiment because I feel like he's at least on, equal footing to Stephen Campbellmore in terms of emphasis and screen time in the movie.

The thing about Hector, though, is, and maybe, like, who's the movie's POV? The students, the students. Right. The students as a collective, not even, like, one particular student. Yeah, like, as a collective, they are the lead. Right. And I don't know if that's maybe the, I don't know if that's maybe the effect when this is on stage. Because, like, one of the things about Hector is that he's completely viewed.

from the outside. He's by the students, by Francis Delator, by, you know, he's sort of a cautionary tale for Stephen Campbell Moore. And we, there's very little of Hector that we really sort of like get from him. You know what I mean? So, which again, I think contributes to, I don't know, I feel like I should. You can really make the argument that you get more in the headspace of Irwin. and you do Hector. You do. You absolutely do. He has that scene with Dakin that at least gives you a little bit, a couple of scenes with Dakin, actually, that gives you a little bit of insight into whose character is, and he has the one scene with Francis Delator as well. You don't really get that with Hector as much. And I think this is just an interesting case of like the campaign issues with this movie, uh, reflecting the movies problems, you know? Yeah. No. I mean, I think that's probably true. Do you think

there would have been more of an opportunity if they had pushed Francis Delator for a supporting actress campaign? No, I feel like that was even less likely to happen

because you're talking about multiple Babel nominations. We knew Cape Blanchet would be run in supporting. The winner is Jennifer Hudson's the one Jennifer Hudson

Which is never in doubt Which was never in doubt But like that is a category though If you're looking at it Objectively Like we can sort of say Like from you know And after the fact thing

That like that lineup stayed pretty consistent Emily Blunt was a Golden Globe nominee And a BAFTA nominee Yes Francis Delator was But in general It did stay sort of solid but it is a, you know, solid lineup that includes one child performance, one performance that's really a lead, and then two performances by heretofore unknown actresses who are performing in, you know, not in the English language, in Babel.

And I don't love Babel as a movie. So this sort of, like, colors that a little bit. But I also feel like it's not like we were nominated. Like, Adriana Barata and Rinko Kikuchi have both gone on to, like, be in other things, but, like, have not proven themselves to be these, like, towering talents after the fact, right? Like, you know, it's not like they nominated, you know, a young Michelle Yo or something like that. You know what I mean? So I can, in retrospect, look back and be like, what do we lose by not nominating anybody from Babel, you know, this year?

What do we lose by just letting Babel not happen? I mean, I haven't seen Babel in a long time. I remember being pretty mixed on it at the time. Everybody seems to be in agreement. It's just one of those miserableists in your retos that I don't, like, get on board with. Everybody at the time seemed to be in agreement that the best parts of the movie were the Rinko Kikuchi parts and that she was absolutely, like, giving the best. best acting, supporting acting performance. Because of course, Jennifer Hudson had so much of her candidacy was buoyed by her singing. But that if you were looking at it from a pure acting

perspective, I think most people at the time were lining up behind Rinko Kikuchi. And I watched that movie. And I'm like, I guess. Like, I don't know. I've never seen the appeal. I've never seen the appeal for that. I liked Adriana Baratza more in that movie. But like, That was what I thought the prevailing sense was, was that Adriana Barraza gave the better, but less showy performance. Not in my recollection, at least. But, like, I put Francis Delator above everybody in this category with the caveat that Kate Blanchett is wonderful in notes on a scandal, but she is a co-lead. She's, in fact, possibly more of a lead than Judy Dench is. Under no circumstances, what I put her above Jennifer Hudson.

Well, I know, but, like, we disagree on that. It is the type of thing that if this was more of a best picture contender or a more broadly appreciated movie, Francis Deletor would have had more of a shot. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 2006 is a weird Oscar year. It's one of those years. It's got like this like all-timer great best actress lineup, a really kind of shaggy best, or best actress lineup, I should say. And a really shaggy best actor lineup where it's, you know, Forrest Whitaker is winning for. for Last King of Scotland, who he's great

in that movie, but there is an argument that he is if not a full supporting character, at least less of a lead of that movie than McAvoy is. He's not the protagonist, but I still think that's a lead. I think you can support that, but I also

feel like I would, if they had nominated him in supporting, I'd be like, okay. If Hannibal Lecter's a lead, then Ediamine is a lead. That's fair. That's fair. I don't think you can compare the Last King of Scotland to the Silence of the Lambs. No, no, no, no, no. This is the year that Leonardo DiCaprio is sort of headed towards a nomination for the

departed, and then, like, slowly but surely gets subsumed by his candidacy for Blood Diamond, a movie, everybody... The shorter way of saying that, that this is the year that bling, bling, bling means bling bang. That everybody sort of agreed that Blood Diamond was the worst movie, but all of a sudden everybody sort of, like, got behind DiCaprio's performance candidacy for that. I think it was that they got on board with, okay, well, we'll nominate him for supporting for the departed,

but not enough people actually nominated him as supporting for the departed. Peter O'Toole gets his final competitive Oscar nomination for a movie. Was seen as running second place. Roger Michel's Venus, a movie I still have never seen. Or I. He was seen as running second place, but like a distant second place. I feel like it never, and running second place because he had never won a competitive Oscar. Right. Will Smith is nominated for the heavily sentimental of the pursuit of happiness.

A thing where you could envision a season in which that becomes your sort of your sentimental favorite frontrunner performance, and he just sort of runs away with that. But nobody liked the movie. Yeah, but, like, sometimes that doesn't matter. You know what I mean? Like, but I think the fact that he just got nominated was sort of as a, you know, just a testament to his star power at the time. And then somewhat surprising, but very gratifying, Ryan Gosling gets his first nomination for Anna Bowden and Ryan Flex, half Nelson, which is a really good performance. And I was really glad that he got nominated. And of those five, he'd probably finish second for me to Whitaker, I think.

Of those five, I would agree. Speaking of category confusion and category fraud, Sharika Epps in that movie was also great. I think won the supporting Indy Spirit Prize. Hold, please. But that is a lead, and because, you know, she was a kid or a teenager, they ran her in supporting. Let's see. Half Nelson at the Independent Spirit Awards that year.

Critics' choice nominated her as best young actress, which is not fraudulent. She is, in fact, young. She won the Gotham Award for Breakthrough. And, no, she won female lead at the Independent Spirit Awards. Oh, she did get the lead. She and Gosling. Good, because she's the lead. Yes. Yes. She and Gosling both won lead actor and actress that year. It got nominated a bunch. It was nominated for feature, for director, and what else? First screenplay for Bowdoin and Fleck. So, yes, good for them. Very, very good for them. Good movie. Oh, 6 is a weird year, though. Yeah. I don't know. The nature of it being a weird year, I think ultimately helps the Departed and Scorsese win, too.

Oh, definitely. Because it kept things sort of wide open long enough for, because the narrative on the departed was a late-breaking narrative. Because initially, the story on The Departed was, oh, my, thank God, after years of Marty desperately chasing Oscar with these period pieces or whatever, he's just going to go back and make another crime movie and like we'll just enjoy it we'll just enjoy it we're not going to talk about Oscars it's going to be fine and then people really liked it because it was a quote unquote return to form and then when huge box office hit and then when that Oscar's you know race when Dreamgirls proved to be sort of not the frontrunner that people assumed or that Flags of Our Fathers was not the frontrunner the people presumed or that the Good Shepherd was the good shepherd was. not the frontrunner. That was underrated for one of those years where, like, a lot of the on-paper frontrunners fell away. And then The Departed was there. It's like, hey, it was a movie everybody loved, and we, like, Martin Scorsese's right there. And we don't want to give it to Babel, and we don't want to really give it to the queen. And we don't want to really,

like, go so far as to give it to, like, Little Miss Sunshine. So, like, Marty's right here. Why the hell not? I also wonder if Absent the Departed, if the Queen would be a best. It might be. It might be. It was definitely like a big, I think, well, like... Little Miss Sunshine was definitely second place, but if you're talking about the shape of the race, absent the department. I don't know if I could be confident enough to say what I thought was second place, because, like, Babel did win the Golden Globe for best drama and was definitely like, what were the nomination leaders that year? That would have been...

I think it was Babel. Let's see. No, Dreamgirls. That's right. Dreamgirls didn't get director or picture nominated and has... the most nominations. And had the most nominations. Babel was second, though, with seven. Okay. Okay. Babel with seven. Pan's Labyrinth, another movie that was not best picture nominated was tied with the queen for six. And then Blood Diamond, another not best picture

nominee. So, like, this is one of these years that is really, I think we've done this before. I think we've mapped out 06 into a top 10 before, because we've, I remember putting like Pan's Labyrinth on there. And we debated whether children of men would have been, Strong enough to be on there, and I don't think it would have been. Yeah, really interesting, really weird, really weird Oscar year in general, which I tend to enjoy when it's that sort of like messy. This is the year that, like, your art direction nominees include the Good Shepherd,

the prestige and pirates of the Caribbean dead man's chest, your costume design nominees, which is won by Marie Antoinette, but, like, Curse of the Golden Flowers nominated there. Apocalyptic and Click are your two best makeup nominees that lose to Pan's Labyrinth. It's just Black Dahlia is nominated. And's Labyrinth gets three Oscars. Your Sampan's Labyrinth is one of those cases that it's like, if they had another week or another two weeks to campaign before nominations, it probably could have.

Was this been a Best Picture nominee? Definitely. Absolutely, definitely. Was this the last year that there were no Best Picture nominees in cinematography? because your nominee's cinematography Guillermo DeVarro wins for Pan's Labyrinth Black Dahlia Vilmo Sigmund is nominated

Emmanuel Lebeske for Children of Men Dick Pope for the illusionist Remember the Paul Giam or it's Edward Norton Paul Giamatti Jessica Beal, right? The illusionist? And then the prestige, Wally Fister for the prestige. It's a great lineup

but I'm going through now. I'm going through cinematography to see if you are right I think I am. And I believe you are. Because it's also the last time... It's a good trivia question. Cinematography was won, aside from Blade Runner, that cinematography was won by a non-best Picture nominee.

But yeah, a full lineup of non-best Picture nominees, which I think is thrilling. Do that challenge, Oscar voters, this year. Cinematography branch members, do that challenge. Should we get into the three-fifference? 50th of it all before we go too far down the line and then we can maybe circle back to the History Boys before we end? 350.

3.50. We've done it. We always do, we like to reflect on another year for the show. Right. 50 episodes is roughly a year when we factor in. We've got a TIF episode in there and, you know, uh, yeah, it's, it's more or less. And it's just a hard number. It makes it easier that way. Absolutely. Absolutely. we're so thankful that you guys keep checking us out

it's true keep us going we love your enthusiasm no we love it in the comments we hope we've got another another great 50 ahead of us anything we do hopefully another better 50 ahead of us the past two years of my life have been I think probably safely the worst so if I seem a little off better things ahead I have been better things ahead so for sure Looking forward to better times. 400. We'll be hitting 400 in a year. That is wild to me.

When we hit 500 and I guess four years, four years or would that be five years? One, three years. Three. It's going to be, it'll be interesting to see what we have and haven't added to the roster at that point. Yes. How we might have evolved. Yes. Yes.

This, I mean, like, that's part of why doing this for 350 for us, because it would have been so early on, it's nice that we have evolved and that, you know, things, we've added things to the show. It gives us as, you know, people who make this show a way to reflect on that. But also that, uh, a lot of things that have stayed the same. Yes. We have a nice foundation here. Yes. Like, kind of like remarkably so. I feel like we've been, we've been. We've. we, you know, we, we, we're still operating off of the same general outline that we did from the beginning, which I think is kind of like remarkable. Like we, we really, you know, things about this podcast sort of came together as we went along, but like we had a pretty solid skeleton there right from the beginning. So, and I imagine that helped. We knew what we wanted to do. Yeah. We keep achieving it. And I think we do that not only through our love of each other, but our love of the listener.

Yes. We try to do the best that we can for all of you listening at home. So just want to take a little moment to express some gratitude. Indeed. So traditionally, when we hit a 50 episode milestone, we take the last 50 movies we talked about as our field and cobble together a ballot. a best-of-ballot that includes our 10 best pictures and then five nominees in each of the acting categories

from the last 50 movies. Should we read off the 50 movies very quickly so people know what movies were, or is that just going to take? It's a long list, but go for it. All right, I'll try and speed through as quickly as possible. So starting with episode 301, Bernie, sliding doors, Red Rocket, American Psycho, Peterloo, Things you can tell just by looking at her, Brad's status, the monuments men, Jeffrey, man on the moon,

the lady in the van, Labor Day, the menu, unbreakable, French exit, Liberty Heights, Chappaquitic, my policeman, bend it like Becca, matchstick man, Ben is back, love actually, rust and bone, devil in a blue dress, we don't live here anymore, the dressmaker on the road, Hope Springs, the Devil's Own, in good company, saltburn, snowpiercer, King of the Hill, the French Dispatch, Jersey Boys, certain women, to the wonder, the death of Stalin, 99 homes, titan, Rosencrantz and Gilden's turn are dead, strictly ballroom, white noise, things we lost in the fire, great expectations, Madame Susatzka, take this waltz, BPM, the Deep End, and the history boys. Well done. What a list. Fifty films. A very equality. I feel like we got also back on

track this year of the previous year we did. Bangers. So many movies that we were just Like, we've had enough. We just need to, like, have a nice time. We did a lot of those. This was a good... And it made, like, balloting. Yes. Tricier.

This was a good mix of good movies, and then movies were like, nothing from that movie is going to be making my best of. That's what we're here to do, to do, to talk about some crap sometimes. Sometimes. Crap that, crap, and or things you've just fully forgotten about, memory holds. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. And sometimes when we unearth a memory hold movie, we can pull something from that, that, like,

I'd forgotten how good this is. was. But sometimes when we dig up a movie from the memory hole, we're like, back, back in your memory hole. Go, go away. So this is, it's always an interesting exercise. Where, what should we begin with the supporting categories? Sure. All right. Why don't you give us your supporting actor nominees? Okay. Supporting actor. Brian Batt for Jeffrey. Oh, you're already spitting hot fire right from the break. This is great. I love it. Don Cheadle, Devil in a Blue Dress. Luke Kirby, take this waltz.

Bill Nyee, Love Actually, and Jeffrey Wright, the French Dispatch. These are great. The rest of the title. We match on two, and I'm really glad you put in Don Chiedel and Devon in a blue dress because he was my close sixth place. So we match on Bill Nye and Jeffrey Wright. So lock those two in. My other three nominees, Samuel L. Jackson for Unbreakable. Aren't you a lead?

There's a lot of that movie where he's not there. That's true. Rory Kinnear for Peterloo. Great call. And Tom Sturridge for On the Road. Very fun. Very fun. Other close runners up for me included Rupert Friend for the Death of Stalin, Michael Shannon for 99 Homes, and Richard Dreyfus for Rosencrantz and Guildon Sturner.

Do we do winners? I forget if we do winners. I pick a winner. Let's do winners this year. I'm going to give my win to Don Cheadle. I'm going to give my win to Bill Nye. Great. Perfect. All right. Give me your supporting actress. Supporting actress in alphabetical order.

Lily Gladstone in Certain Women. Carrie Mulligan in Saltburn, Rosamond Pike in Saltburn, Andrea Reisborough in the Death of Stalin, and Michelle Williams in Certain Women. okay i cannot believe that we only overlap on lily gladstone wow well i doubled up on certain women and i doubled up on saltburn so very true that yeah i understand that's that's taken up some realistic it is uh and you should go your own way love that you picked carry mulligan for saltburn she's so funny i debated doing it too poor dear what is her name poor dear pamela poor dear pamela yeah all right so my other four are Adele-Hanel BPM May she rest

Valerie Mahaffey, French ex. Yes, good pick. Cannot believe you didn't say Emma Thompson Love Actually, but Emma Thompson Love Actually. I should have. I should have. And then Pat Thompson's strictly ballroom. Oh, great pick.

I like your picks better than my pick. Than my picks. I definitely drop the ball on both Valerie Mahaffey and Emma Thompson. Forgive me. Forgive me, ladies. That's okay. That's why we both have ballots. We're not doing a collective ballot. I also wrote down, these are sort of like a little bit more distant runners-up, but Laura Dernan, we don't live here anymore. Both Judy Davis and Sarah Snook and The Dressmaker, Tilda Swinton and Snowpiercer, Greta Gerwig, and White Noise, and Sarah Silverman, and take this waltz. All right. My winner is Lily Gladstone.

Yeah, my winner is Lily Gladstone. Yes. Great. No-brainer. Although Michelle Williams, that's, that last rewatch of certain women, really shoo. shot Michelle Williams up my list. Like she's so good in that movie. I'm not jumping ahead, but I'm just saying I'm spreading the wealth. Okay. Best actor. Give me your five. My best actor, Christian Bale, American Psycho. Would have loved to have gotten a supporting player for American Psycho. I just couldn't, you know, put a pin in the map. Yes. Uh, Nehuel Perez Biscayar BPM, Vinson Landon, Titan, Ben Stiller, Brad's status, and Denzel, Washington, devil in a blue dress. We match three for five and almost matched four for five. Denzel was a very, very close cut for me for six place.

Um, mine are Christian Bale for American Psycho. Nehuel Perez Biscayar for BPM. Garfield for 99 homes, Vincent Lindonne for Teton, and Simon Rex for Red Rocket. I knew you were going to vote for Simon Rex, so I did not consider voting for Simon Rex. Just to spread the wealth. I almost put in... And clearly, we needed it in this category. I almost put in Benicio del Toro for Things We Lost in the Fire, which is one of those, like,

so surprised by how much I liked him in that movie, considering I had no interest in watching that movie. But I thought he was quite, quite good. Who's your winner? I think it's Christian Bale. I think it has to be Christian Bale. If you're saying Christian Bail, then I'm going to give it to Vincent Lindon. Yeah.

For Teetan. Yeah. It's a really, that's a really solid lineup. Bail, like, Bail, Lyndon, Perez Biscayar, who are our three overlaps, is like, that's rock solid. We already have one same winner. I would like to otherwise avoidance. I agree. So that's why I forced you to answer first.

All right. Do you want me to read off my best actress? I'll read off best actress So we're like trading back and forth Tara Morris strictly ballroom Michelle Pfeiffer French exit Agatrucel titan Tilda Swinton the Deep End

and Michelle Williams Take This Waltz Mine are I think it was another one where we overlap three for five Shirley Maclean for Madam Suzatska Michelle Pfeiffer for French exit Tilda Swinton for the Deep End Michelle Williams for Take This Waltz

and Kate Winslet for The Dressmaker So we overlapped three again. Yes. My winner's Michelle Williams. I mean, my winner's Michelle Williams. I'm sorry. Like, I don't know where else I'm going to go. Like, I can't make it, I can't, in good conscience, pick anybody else.

Well, I can't take it away. I can't take my way. That's fine. We'll overlap on two. We'll overlap on two. I doubt we're going to overlap on Best Picture, so it's fine. Okay. All right.

Best Picture. In alphabetical order. I have BPM, certain women, the death of Stalin, devil in a blue dress, the French dispatch, King of the Hill, Peterloo, Red Rocket, take this waltz, and unbreakable. It's a lot of overlap to overlap on seven. Wow, what are yours. All right, I have American Psycho, Brad's Status. I should have been Bradstance.

Certain, no, you shouldn't have because then we would have overlaught up eight. No, I probably would have gotten, lopped off another one that we had overlapped on. I probably would have just swapped one for one. Certain women. Devil in a blue dress. King of the Hill. Peterloo. Take this waltz, titan, and unbreakable.

So wait, what's the three that we don't overlap on? Red Rocket. Did you say French dispatch? I did not. And then death of Stalin. Okay. And you didn't say titan. Tan. No. You didn't say Brad status. And what other one did you not say? Did you say American Psycho? No, I didn't. Did you say devil and blue dress? Yes. Yeah. So American Psycho, Titan, and Brad Status are the three. Oh, okay. That's it. Okay. My winner is certain women. Okay. And my winner is BPM.

Great. We did it. Yay. Good job. Good job. I think this particular group of movies, the cream of the crop was pretty high. Love actually was very much on the bubble for me with Unbreakable, but I took it as a sign that Unbreakable would have slotted in alphabetically exactly where I had it hanging out just below the top nine. So I was like, well, that's a sign. I'm just going to put it right there. Plus it's a great movie. I think some really solid filmmakers in here, right? You got your Kelly Rikart's, you got your Carl Franklins, your Wes Andersons, your Soderbergs, your Mike Lees, your Sean Baker's, Sarah Polly.

Your Sera Pallies. I'm Night Shyamalan, like, solid, solid, solid, solid, solid. Certain women being my pick for the best movie we've covered this past year, I just want to say, we were recording this on the week. fallout of the New York Times 100 greatest films of the 25th century and my biggest qualm with the results is there are no Kelly Reichart movies in that list and considering like at least the critical consensus the critical community that was a part of making that list I'm less surprised when you have people like Stephen King and Nicholas Sparks that they're not voting for Kelly Rikart movies, but I am surprised that there are zero Kelly Rikart

movies on that list, because that feels just like categorically incorrect to me, that she would have no movies. I think if they did 100 or whatever, like 50 directors or whatever, she would make it. I think it was the thing we were talking about with Katie about this, which is there is no like singular Kelly Rikart movie that everybody coalesces around, right? That's true. I think some people say... Nobody has the same favorite.

Some people say First Cow, some people say Wendy and Lucy, some people say certain women, some people say Meeks cut off. And I think it's more, I think the power with Kelly Reichert sometimes can be like the filmography as a whole. I'm not sure what movie I would. Like, I guess it would probably be First Cow. I think that's thus far her masterpiece. but I might also cast a vote for certain women because that's... By the way, I was watching the wedding banquet remake last night

and the scene where they all have to go through and de-gay the house and they're taking off... They're removing all the gay movies from the shelves. One of the movies is certain women. Which I think is like it takes us into a weird nexus place where Lily Gladstone plays a character who watches certain women. And then your pick for the best movie of the year is also not on that list because there's, like, no gay movies. Yeah, that's notable.

Maybe that's what happens when you don't poll enough gay people. Should have asked us. Should have asked us, we would have ranked BPM really high. Alas, next time, New York Times, you'll think of us. Yeah, I think it's been a really good, solid 50 movies, and we are already just, Just looking at the schedule, we're going to be off to a hot start with the next several movies. Summer is still in session. Summer is still here for another two months.

All right. I wrote down in my notes the argument they had about when Hector's talking about how they have tour groups at the concentration camps at Auschwitz and Dachau and whatever. he's, and he has a thing about just like, where do they have their sandwiches? Where do they, like, you know, eat their lunch? And sort of talking about the, like, the absurdity of having, you know, any kind of, like, mundanity in these, you know, places of, you know, such horror. Kind of predicted the Olivia Munn at Auschwitz discourse from that one X-Men movie. Remember, were they filmed?

I don't remember that at all. But then you, then again, you say X-Men movie. and that's like firmly none of my business. Your eyes glaze over. Yeah, I get it, I get it. Especially that era of X-Men movie. Sure. Who are you giving a Tony award to the History Boys production of Now Voyager

or the History Boys production of Brief Encounter? Oh, gosh. I mean, I've seen neither one of those movies, so I can't really judge from that. But I thought it was... Is it going to make you get on board to watch one of them? I mean, they're both. They both are definitely on my list.

Now Voyager is higher on my list because it's Betty Davis. Maybe that's the one I give the fake Tony to. Wait, who's performing that in the movie? James Corden was Betty Davis, if I'm remembering correctly. And then brief encounter with Samuel Barnett. Right. Samuel Barnett's so good in this movie. I told you, I unearthed for you, because you're watching America's Next Top Model cycles.

And we got on the subject of Simon Dunin, who, Barney Okay, let's talk about Simon Dunin Simon Dunin becoming famous for decorating To show up places Decorating the Barney's window Tremendous He was also

Might still be married to Who's the stylist he's married to or was married to Who was on that He was one of the judges On the Bravo show about interior design Remember when they tried to do that? Interesting Simon Dunan married to

Jonathan Adler Jonathan Adler. Oh. Yes. Simon Dunin, very underrated. I love the blank talking head and best week ever talking head. Yes, yes. Just a, you know, a gay guy who knows what style he likes.

A very type of gay guy that really needs to come back. Tell the listeners the program that you told me to watch that you found on YouTube. So he wrote a memoir. about his life. So Simon Dunin came, like, got kind of famous by designing the windows at Barneys in New York City in a way that, like, made them

like tourist attractions. So anyway, he wrote a memoir called Beautiful People that was turned into a BBC TV series in the aughts. And during that small window, if you remember, a lot of the, during the Coloscola Tony's run, a lot of people would talk about like, I can't believe that like back when I was watching Jeffrey and Cole Casserol on logo that like now we'd get to this point. And so there was this moment where logo in the midst of, you know, showing Golden Girls reruns or whatever had this programming block that was Jeffrey and Cole Casserol followed by this BBC TV series Beautiful People, which was an adaptation of Simon Dunin's memoir. And Samuel Barnett,

played the 20-something Simon Dunin, who at this point is working in New York at Barneys, who is then reminiscing about his childhood in England. And Olivia Coleman played his mother. They were sort of this, you know, just sort of like working class. She's kind of trashy, but like everybody's very funny. It was the first thing I had ever seen Olivia Coleman in before even, you know, like, oh, the other stuff she did with, like, David Mitchell and whatnot in England. It's, it was very sweet. I can't, I found the first episode on YouTube. I don't know how many other episodes YouTube has, but like, this show doesn't even have a Wikipedia page.

Like, it's, like, so incredibly forgotten, which everybody in, like, our demo remembers Jeffrey and Cole Casserol. So, like, I imagine a lot of people also watch this show. But I can never get anybody to remember it. So maybe not. Maybe it was just me. But anyway, a moment in history. And we can thank Simon Dunin for that. But so Samuel Barnett's in those episodes for like five minutes apiece.

But like, he's just lovely. I really like him quite a bit. But a very fun show. If you can find it, again, the pilot episode is on YouTube. I'm going to look and see if there are any other episodes on it. It's just very, it's British humor. It's sweet. It's funny.

It's very sort of like, you know, it's, you know, a queer coming of age story that is both sensitive but also, like, not maudlin or sappy. I don't know. It's wonderful. I love it. I love it so much. I hope you check it out. I sent you the pilot episode at least. So check it out.

Let me know how you like it. Terrific. Yeah. Any other thoughts on the history boys? Francis Deloort does enter this movie, spreading her arms wide and saying, congratulations, boys. And I really will try to screencap that and post it along with any type of new pop girly or gay good news. Yes. Yes. No, that makes sense. That makes sense. Love the Rufus Wainwright cover of Bewitched Bothered and Bewildered that accompanies the end.

This is the story I have to tell. Oh, okay. I don't always get too personal on the air. But one time when I was in a college audition and I was like, I want to play this gay role, I will be mortified if I play anything else. So I used, and this is post-history boys. So I'm like, please, I hope the director I want to work with knows what I'm doing here. Yeah. And that I'm doing something that's not going to actually get me in trouble.

but is hopefully sending a clear message because when you are auditioning in a college theater program, they give you like guidelines of what to do, like modern malleologue and this type of song, you know, appropriate to like whatever that quarter semester shows are. And so I do bewitched as my like song audition and the director I was wanting to work with. When I say that's what I'm going to do, I can just hear from the. the back of the theater, him chuckling to himself. And I was like, yes, yes, I did it. I got it.

I sent the message I was trying to send. Wonderful. Always love hearing bewitched sung by a man for that reason. Thank you Samuel Barnett for what you have done to the culture for me. What show is that originally from? No, no, no, no, no, net. Okay. No, no, no, no, net.

Hold on. I'm going to look it up. 1940 popular song written by... Pal Joey. Pal Joey. This is from Pal Joey. Okay. All right.

There we go. Edy bring me the orchestration of T for two. No, no, not, not. Wonderful song. Wonderful, wonderful song. All right. I guess we should get into the IMDB game. Joe, would you like to explain the IMDB game for our listener?

Yes. Every week we under episodes with the IMD game. game where we challenge each other with the name of an actor or actress and 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 mentioned 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 righty. How would you like this to go today? Would you like to give or guess first? I'll guess first. All right. So I looked at the

replacement casts of the history boys to see if there was anyone Famoso that we could use and I chose for you mr. Matt Smith Matt Smith there are two television roles in his known for okay I'm guessing one of them is Doctor who dr. whom and then one of them is House of the Dragon incorrect okay one of them's a crown The crown is correct Always forget that Okay, so two films left

You don't get your years Until you get a One more wrong, yes Is one of them last night in Soho? Last Night in Soho is correct Okay Terrible movie Yeah, not great

What else might I have seen Matt Smith in as the question? question. He's such a TV-coded actor to me. This movie is, I shouldn't, don't take this as a hint, but this movie is maybe the reason why I settled on Matt Smith. Oh, God, okay. Is he in, like, Bridget Jones's Baby? Bridget Jones's Baby is incorrect. Your year is 2022. Okay.

2020. What's happening in 2022? What's popping? What's going off? What's cracking? Is he in Elvis? Not Elvis, though you are right to guess a movie named after the lead character. The titular role.

The titular role from 2022. A stylistically genre, you're in the wrong ballpark. So not a biopic? Well, yes, a biopic. No. Well, yes, this character is a real person living in the real world. We should totally Lidiatar this character. Wait, are you joking then?

Are you... I am joking. I am joking. But it would be funny if we made this a bit. Okay. But not actual Lidiatar. Not Lidiatar, no. Okay.

Double feature. with Lydia Tar. Does Matt Smith play the titular character? I can't imagine. No, but his character name shares the first letter of the titular character name. They are very similar ish names.

Okay. So like Macbeth and McDuff or whatever? You might want to stay on that letter. M? Okay. Yes. M, M, M, M. M. M. M. M. M. M. M. M. M. M. M. M. M. M. M. M. M. Stay there. More, more, M.O.

Yes. Okay. Uh, more Vernkaller. Um, stay there. More, more, more, really safer. Um, you're gonna be so mad. Probably. Um, um, um.

More. from America. Mortisha. Mor... Opposite end of the alphabet. Morb. Morb. Stare there.

Morb. Morbius? Stere there. Morbius? Fucking Morbius. Fuck off. You know, the famous Dr. Morbius. He contributed it to the COVID vaccine.

Oh, my God. Morbius. He's a real doctor in the world. replace Dr. Phil with Dr. Morbius, and we might be in a better place. We could do no worse. Matt Smith's second build in Morbius as Milo. Two names that are definitely real human being names. People are named Milo.

People who are pets. People who are not humans, but are like dogs and cats. I feel like there are people named Milo. Milos, Milos. Any, Gary's who are Milo's out there. there. I'm not making fun of you. Get at us. Stand in your truth and your name.

You just saw Milo and Otis as a child and you were imprinted is what happened. All right. Yeah. I am going headfirst into the 2006 Oscar race for mine. This is somebody we've done before, but not since January of 2019. So I think we've had enough time. I am

once again bringing out Forrest Whitaker. Okay, last king of Scotland. Yes. There's no directing credits, right? No. Okay. Because I guess people don't know he directed.

Everybody's always surprised to find out that he directed, like, waiting to exhale on hope floats. And hope floats, yeah. Okay. Bird, the Clint Eastwood bird? It's not a bad guess, but no, strike one. Well, he's a protagonist in that. He is. Um, what bad action movie is going to be there?

Um, I mean, uh, oh, um, Rogue One. No, good guess also for that, but not Rogue One. Okay, so you get years. Your years are and 2018 2018. 2000, 2013 and 2018 so 2000

before his Oscar Yeah I don't think any the direction I was thinking for bad action movies

I don't think it's there is 2000 like 2013 2018 okay he has to be a diplomat oh it oh no arrivals 2016 um he has to be like a diplomat or like a army general in some of these movies i'll say he's the lead in one and he's supporting in the other two okay

so he's probably the lead in like 2013 yes okay okay what's going on in 2013 one of these movies we've done for this had Oscar buzz one we can't or the other two we can't do for this had Oscar buzz for opposite reasons okay because one of them did not have Oscar buzz and one of them was nominated and or won something. So spread out. Are any of these action movies? Two of them are action movies. The 2000 movie is an action movie.

Okay, what's going on in 2000? That could be like, They're both action, all the, both of the action movies are action movies that are augmented by an adjective. So like something action, something action. Oh, so like, uh, thriller action. Right, it's not thriller action, but yes. Like another genre. No.

No. Yes. We can't have Scientology action epic. Battlefield Earth on his No. Yes, can and do. Battlefield Earth 2000. No. Yes. He's like the only Scientologists. He's the only

non-scientologist in that movie. Probably. Okay, but there's another action movie. There's another action movie. So Battlefield Earth is the one that didn't have Oscar Buzz, obviously. So your other action movie had Oscar nomination. Oh, man. I'm sorry, Forrest Whitaker. Yeah, that's tough. Battlefield Earth.

Okay, so we've done one and then we can't do the other because it had Oscar nominations and or wins. I guess people have kind of forgotten that he's in this movie because he's not in the sequel. Ooh, ooh, the one we've done is the butler. Yes, the Butler. Finally, everything you have and everything. And he's the lead of that one too, so I got that clue off. So, 2018, an action movie that would have had Oscar nominations and or wins. 2018.

He's a supporting player. Oh, it's Black Panther. He's in, like, a scene of Black Panther. He's in a few scenes in Black Panther. He's sort of, he's his mentor figure. Yeah, people have definitely forgot that he's in that movie. Yes, they have, because he's not in the second one. And he's not in any of, like, the action sequences, right?

Yes. Yes, you got it. You got it there. Forrest Whitaker. Got there. All right. Well done. Yay.

All right. That's our 350th episode. What a milestone. If you want more ThisHad Oscar Buzz, you can check out the Tumblr at thisheadoscurbos.com. You can also follow us on Instagram at This Head Oscar Buzz. And on Patreon at patreon.com slash this head Oscar Buzz. Joe, where can the listeners find more of you? Letterboxed and Blue Sky at Joe Reed,

read spelled R-E-I-D. I also have a Patreon exclusive podcast on the films of Demi Moore called Demi Myself and I that you can find at patreon.com slash Demipod. That's D-E-M-I-P-O-D. And you can find me on Letterbox and Blue Sky

at Chris V-File. That's F-E-I-L. We would like to thank Kyle Cummings for his fantastic artwork. Dave Gonzalez and Gavin Mevieus for their technical guidance from time to time and Taylor Cole for our theme music. please remember to rate, like, and review us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, wherever else you get your podcasts.

Five-star review in particular really helps us out with Apple Podcasts visibility. So write us a review in your favorite black-and-white romantic cinema. It can be Now Voyager, Brief Encounter, or something else. But do it anyway. That's all for this week. We hope you'll be back next week for more buzz, and we hope you'll be back for more milestones. We love you and day. Thank you.