After a career as an actress, Sarah Polley made her directorial debut with Away From Her, landing Oscar nominations for both her screenplay and Julie Christie’s performance. Her follow-up would be a slight gear shift: the intimate character study of infidelity, Take This Waltz. The film stars Michelle Williams as a writer who begins to feel … Continue reading "347 – Take This Waltz"
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346 – Madame Sousatzka (w/ Taylor Cole!)
Our friend and theme music composer Taylor Cole returns to us this week to talk about one of our most beloved stars on This Had Oscar Buzz, Shirley MacLaine. After finally winning her Oscar for Terms of Endearment, MacLaine took a few well-earned years off. Her return was this tale of a hardened piano teacher … Continue reading "346 – Madame Sousatzka (w/ Taylor Cole!)"
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345 – Great Expectations
After his A Little Princess adaptation earned a duo of Oscar nominations, Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón followed that up with another literary adaptation, a modernization of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations. With hot young stars Ethan Hawke and Gwyneth Paltrow as the central lovers and Oscar winners Anne Bancroft and Robert De Niro in support, the film transplanted Dickens’ … Continue reading "345 – Great Expectations"
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344 – Things We Lost in the Fire
At the beginning of the aughts, both Halle Berry and Benicia Del Toro were riding high on Oscar wins. In 2007, they both paired up for Things We Lost in the Fire, a melodrama from Danish director Susanne Bier. From a script by Collateral Beauty scribe Allan Loeb, the film cast Berry as a grieving wife … Continue reading "344 – Things We Lost in the Fire"
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343 – White Noise (Festival Fever!)
Festival Fever comes to an end this week with a look at the last major film festival of the year, the New York Film Festival. In 2022, Noah Baumbach follow-up up his biggest Oscar success, Marriage Story, by tackling Don DeLillo’s unadaptable novel White Noise. The satire stars Adam Driver as the leading professor in … Continue reading "343 – White Noise (Festival Fever!)"