The Big Picture · Discussion · Interview
November 19, 2019/ 112 min/ Sean Fennessey · Amanda Dobbins
Seven Best Picture bubble contenders, a Stock Up/Stock Down on Charlie's Angels and the Snyder Cut discourse, an early Best Cinematography read, and Scott Z. Burns on directing The Report.
29 films across 4 segments.
AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.
The Seven "on the Bubble" Oscar Contenderswith a shortened season, who's actually got a shot
Opened to $31 million, soft against past Novembers but proof the James Mangold racing drama has adult-audience legs. Sean and Amanda see a Best Picture slot but call Christian Bale's Best Actor case an uphill climb in a stacked field, and doubt Mangold cracks the five directing slots.
Trey Edward Shults' family drama split the room: Amanda was overwhelmed by it, Sean found it style over substance. Sterling K. Brown looks like the clearest nomination path, in Best Supporting Actor.
Shia LaBeouf plays a version of his own abusive father; Noah Jupe and Lucas Hedges play LaBeouf at different ages. Box office dropped off fast in week two, and Sean isn't convinced enough voters will seek it out.
Scott Z. Burns' directorial debut, with Adam Driver as Senate staffer Daniel Jones investigating the CIA torture program. Sean calls Annette Bening's Dianne Feinstein the film's best nomination shot, despite a thin part.
Todd Haynes' DuPont-poisoning docudrama, with Mark Ruffalo as the lawyer who took on the company. Sean recommends it but doesn't think it's really on the bubble anymore: too bleak for Oscar voters, even with a strong Bill Camp performance.
Apple TV+'s awards bid: Samuel L. Jackson and Anthony Mackie as Black entrepreneurs who buy a bank in the Jim Crow South, using Nicholas Hoult as their white front man. Amanda calls it purely watchable; Sean floats a lightweight Best Supporting Actor case for Jackson.
Jay Roach's Fox News docudrama, with Charlize Theron as Megyn Kelly, Nicole Kidman as Gretchen Carlson, and Margot Robbie as a composite character. Both predict four nominations: picture, actress, supporting actress, and original screenplay.
Stock Up, Stock Down
Elizabeth Banks' reboot flopped hard: $8.5 million on 3,500 screens. Amanda blames a marketing push aimed at kids and general reboot fatigue; Kristen Stewart got the only real praise.
Ian McKellen and Helen Mirren con-artist thriller from Bill Condon that pivots into an elder-care drama neither host expected. $5.6 million opening; Sean recommends Condon's Gods and Monsters instead.
Alicia Vikander thriller set in Japan, from the director of Still Alice, that went straight to Netflix with almost no notice. Neither host thinks it works.
Gal Gadot, Ben Affleck, and Ray Fisher all tweeted #ReleaseTheSnyderCut on the two-year anniversary of the theatrical cut's release. Sean reads it as a sign that an alternate Zack Snyder edit really exists, though he's skeptical it would actually be good.
The Big Race: Best Cinematography
DP Lawrence Sher won the Golden Frog at Camera Image, following the Golden Lion in Venice. Sean expects the win to help drag Joker to picture, actor, and a pile of below-the-line nominations.
Robert Richardson's ninth nomination looks likely, for recreating 1969 Hollywood with unusual stillness for a Tarantino movie.
Rodrigo Prieto shot around Scorsese's de-aging technology. Amanda prefers the film's mood and story to its look, and isn't as big a fan of Prieto's style as Sean is.
Jarin Blaschke's black-and-white, boxy-aspect-ratio photography is the kind of showy work this category tends to reward, though a nomination would be a surprise given the film's scale.
Roger Deakins (14 nominations, one win, for Blade Runner 2049) shooting Sam Mendes' one-take World War I film. Sean calls this the movie "created to get Deakins a second Oscar."
César Charlone, zero prior nominations, won the Silver Frog at the same Camera Image festival.
Shot by Jörg Widmer, Terrence Malick's longtime camera operator making his own DP debut; zero prior nominations.
Shot by Mihai Mălaimare Jr., who also shot The Master; zero prior nominations.
Shot by Hong Kyung-pyo; zero prior nominations.
Caleb Deschanel (six nominations, no wins) shot the photorealistic remake despite it being entirely digital, no live animals or landscapes. Sean thinks his name recognition could carry a nomination anyway.
Shot by Vladimir Smutný; neither host had seen it yet.
Yorick Le Saux, zero prior nominations. Amanda calls the look understated but painterly, good at conveying the four sisters talking over each other.
In conversation
Burns describes tracking down Daniel Jones (the real-life Senate staffer behind the 6,700-page torture report) by cold-calling Dianne Feinstein's office, and giving him the pseudonym "Neil Marcus" during production for privacy Jones said he didn't need. Shot in 26 days, largely out of order.
The anthology film Burns says he and Soderbergh both loved: its structure directly inspired The Laundromat.
Burns and Soderbergh's Panama Papers comedy, turning the real law firm's founders into Wild Tales-style game-show-host narrators. Burns calls it a reaction against exhaustion from researching The Report.
The earlier Burns-Soderbergh collaboration whose semi-farcical tone he originally wanted for The Report, before it became a straighter drama.
Burns names it the last great thing he's seen, from a Telluride screening: Bong Joon-ho's most complete film, he says, and a spiritual companion to The Laundromat's income-inequality themes.
Also mentioned raised along the way
Also in the Oscar conversation Marriage StoryViceZero Dark ThirtyBeasts of the Southern WildGet OutBlack PantherFrozen IIQueen & SlimKnives OutFantastic Beasts: The Crimes of GrindelwaldThor: RagnarokThe FarewellAladdinDoctor SleepBird BoxIn Fabric
1970s touchstones and inspirations All the President's MenThe Parallax ViewSerpicoSilkwoodMary PoppinsThe Graduate
In passing The GriftersThe American PresidentA Civil ActionErin BrockovichGods and MonstersI, TonyaThe Wolf of Wall StreetLong ShotMan of SteelBatman v Superman: Dawn of JusticeThe Way BackTomb Raider
Cinematographer filmographies, rattled off Inglourious BasterdsDjango UnchainedBorn on the Fourth of JulyPlatoonHugoThe AviatorJFKThe Shawshank RedemptionFargoKundunO Brother, Where Art Thou?The Man Who Wasn't ThereNo Country for Old MenThe Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert FordThe ReaderTrue GritSkyfallPrisonersUnbrokenSicarioBlade Runner 2049SilenceBrokeback MountainThe MasterThe HangoverThe Hangover Part III Love You, ManThe DictatorWar DogsThe Right StuffThe NaturalFly Away HomeThe PatriotThe Passion of the ChristNever Look Away
Scott Burns talked about Charlie Wilson's WarTriumph of the WillDay for NightThe State of Things
Teased for next episode A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV This Is UsThe People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime StoryGame ChangeRecount