Critical Darlings: The Oscar Nominations Recap (And Also Some Talk About F1)

25:46At this point, they just give her nominations. And for a movie that was by no means a kind of like overwhelming favorite, Bagonia, like on the scale of Yorgos movies, Like, this was not one of his most beloved, as divisive as his movies often are. Would you have ever guessed, like, back in the day, watching Alps or Dogtooth, being like, someday he'll just be like an Oscar favorite. Oscar darling. Oscar darling. You over goes to Slythmos. It's so funny. Making this movie about incest amongst siblings who've been locked in a compound their entire lives. Yeah. But Kate Hudson, I mean, I think that's like, you know, it's hard when there's only five slots and you're like, there are great performances that just can't get in.

26:31And Kate Hudson is really good in Song Song Blue. Can I confess something? This is the one that I haven't seen yet. Oh, well, well, well. How about that? I will. I will watch it. I mean, it's not a, I don't think it's a bad movie. I think it's a little bit hokey or something. Hugh Jackman is maybe kind of oddly miscast. Even though he's literally the only movie star in Working Today who could do that role, he's also miscast somehow. Um, but Kate Hudson, like, you know, she's doing this kind of Midwestern Milwaukee, I guess, accent and she sings and she's a beautiful singer. And she has a lot of levels to play from, you know, falling in love to, you know, recovering from a terrible accident to sort of drug addiction to grief.

27:13Like, there's a lot in this, this movie that kind of advertises itself as Jessica's kind of uplifting movie about like the songs of Neil Diamond, like making people happy. And yeah, I think that when I saw that movie at Savannah, I was like, this does have some kind of Academy juice to it. And there it is. Proven. Yeah. I mean, you know, sometimes people like a lot of acting. And if this sounds like it's a lot of acting. Yeah. It's a big, broad kind of old school performance of the sort that like there were probably I haven't I don't have it in front of me, but you could probably go back to like the early 2000s, the late 90s.

27:49And all five Best Actress nominees would be giving this kind of performance. you know it's just that kind of old-fashioned thing i feel like i mean also as opposed to amanda safer too i think is great in testament of enly but like i think testament is enly you can imagine a lot of people walking about out of that movie being like what was that movie you know like she's incredible in it but like what like it's a harder movie to understand it is less friendly it is much less commercial you know uh it's much less commercial than the brutalist which has basically the same creative team behind it you know and and i think people were making that comparison like well okay so the movie that the man directs and the star is a man like that wins all the or gets nominated for all these oscars and wins a big one and then his wife's movie that she directs doesn't and it's about a woman doesn't get anything but they are very different enterprises one is about like world war ii and architecture and america and this and lee is about like religious ecstasy and obscure cult with also music right and also like about kind of channeling your domestic trauma into a revelation from God in which you're like, sex is bad.

28:53And your husband is like, what? Not between us, though, right? We're fine. No, I think a great and interesting movie, but not a friendly one in terms of letting the audience in. And Seifert did just do an interview where she was like, you know, I'm not doing this for awards. It's like, you know, a nomination would be great, but like, you know, I think she'll be okay. I just think it's a little bit surprising in some ways, despite, you know, the difficulty with subject matter, the sort of strange music, that this lushly mounted movie that eventually got picked up by Searchlight and was at Venice and was at Toronto, was from a long distance, like maybe this summer, like viewed as like one of the bigger Oscar potential movies of the year.

29:42like Annalie just didn't hit anywhere. It just, you know. Yeah, but it also like, it sold to Searchlight at the end of September. Kind of late. Like that's really late, you know, like it had to compress a whole run, which is not impossible, right? But like it had to compress a whole run starting after its Venice premiere. They would have needed that engine to really to be moving at Venice or before Venice even. And I think my theory about why that sale happened late, you know, was that like Searchlight was like, you know, we've done some screenings. I don't think this Bradley Cooper Will Arnett comedy movie is going to be Oscar-y so what else is out there that we could snap up real quick and try to do something for?

30:21And it just happened to be this pretty esoteric I think beautifully mounted and beautifully performed movie about religion and trauma. What else have we got? Oh, no, Paul Meskel as previously. Yeah, which I think that's okay. I was texting with somebody who was like I wonder if he's relieved in a way. Because would you want to be the person who denies Delroy Lindo getting a nomination or whatever? I think also he obviously has plenty of time. And I feel like I think he is very good in that movie if given like some impossible tasks as we discussed. But I mean, like the acting story there is Jesse Buckley's, you know, like it has been so Jesse Buckley's from the beginning.

31:04And I think that's fine. Yeah. Well, in some ways, actually, Meskel not getting nominated, despite the fact that he's a pretty large presence in the film, is actually truer to the book, where William Shakespeare is not really in the book much at all. And it's all on Agnes. So now the Academy has leveled that out to where it should be, I guess. You know, and I don't feel like that's a snub for some reason. I don't know why. I mean, I guess I kind of know a snub when I see it. And that just feels like, like, there wasn't room and we had other things we wanted to do in this category. Yeah, I know.

31:37I feel like people kind of took it for granted. But he'll be fine. Yeah, I think so. He said this morning, he's still in bed. Maybe he was a little sad when I left the house. But no, but he seemed okay. I mean, Best Actor went pretty much as expected. I say that. three weeks ago, I would not have said it went as expected because like I thought Joel Edgerton was going to get in. I, you know, I wasn't so sure about the Wagner Mora thing. Ethan Hawke kind of came up really quick at the last minute. But if you'd asked me a week ago, yes, this would have been my five. Okay. Yeah, this was what I expected.

32:12But I will say I, we differ here. I never thought Joel Edgerton was going to, was a surefire nominee. I mean, that's a, it's a little film, I am impressed by how well it did, you know, in the nominations. It certainly overperformed, but I felt like this was a really crowded category. It was understood to be a crowded category, even when it was packed with people who have since faded away, right? Like George Clooney's, etc. Was George Clooney in a movie last year? I never heard of it. I don't know. But I think that you have a lot of people vying for this and Vagremora like kind of rising up to suddenly become like the, I don't know, kind of the second.

32:56I feel like he's like, it's like a place right now. Well, it helps if you look hot as shit at every single precursor you go to. Exactly, I know. And just comes in and like charms the hell out of everyone. Whereas like Joel Edgerton, we're going to talk about Train Dreams next week more in depth, so I don't want to talk too much about it. But like, you know, I went to a dinner with him at the Savannah Film Festival and like he's a nice guy and like clearly like very dedicated to the film and to his craft and all that. But he's not like giving a ton in a room, you know? And I think that Wagner Mora, who is brilliant in his movie, has been great in other things in the past.

33:28Again, wearing these great suits, giving lovely speeches, charming people. And also just giving off old school leading man in that movie and in person. And I think that helps a lot. Whereas like Edgerton is like very self-contained. In his roles, that's usually what he gives, right? Is that he is like a guy who kind of is carrying a lot inside. Yeah, and he barely speaks in tragedy. It's like Will Patton, the narrator, speaks way more than and is never on screen yeah um so yeah and i i think look ethan hawk that's so great he again kind of with uh to the kate hudson of it all like that's a really old school like transformative performance and they had to shoot him from funny angles to make him look tiny and it's verbose and it's about the american theater and and and all that like i think that's really cool and i thought that that would be the one representative of blue moon but it got a screenplay nomination and I thought that was that was surprising to me yeah I I figured Ethan Hawke was getting it I feel I feel like he does something I mean like you said it's an old school kind of transformative performance but I think it's also just a really good one you know like he is he's doing a lot without feeling like he's making you like look at his work which is sometimes the case when someone is especially playing a real person you know where you're like like like I get it you watch the like listen to a lot of tapes of this person talking or like yeah you spend a lot of time in the makeup chair every morning I feel like he just really inhabits that character and he allows it to be a little bit of a fantasy you know like this was not like a real night in his life like this is like this incredibly theatrical idea of like picking what's one pivot like he plays into that so well and I feel like it frees him up to play that character as a character yeah I mean as I've said about that movie a billion times if he did it on stage they would hand him and Tony a curtain call they would not wait till June he would have it wrapped up he is really good I also love the screenplay nomination because it is a great dense you know clever screenplay so the guy who wrote it Robert Kaplow he has written one other screenplay which was for Richard Linklater's Me and Orson Welles which did not get an Oscar nomination he's written a lot of books I think like nine or something but he mostly was a film and English teacher in high school until fairly recently he retired.

35:39Imagine if your teacher just got nominated for an Oscar. That would be pretty exciting. That is pretty exciting. I will say one thing about that screenplay. I do like it a lot. I cannot stand the moment where he gives E.B. White the idea for Stuart But that's actually happened. That's when the movie tilts from charmingly old school quaint to cloying. Today we call them computers. Let's just take a moment before we leave Best Actor behind. This was a category where like every major actor passed through. So let's take a moment to salute George Clooney, aforementioned, for a movie we don't know about.

36:18No, I think it was, yeah. It was odd that he was in the race, but didn't have a movie. No, I know, but it just happened that way. The Rock. Oh, yeah. Remember The Rock? He was in there briefly. Talking about how he had been ruthlessly pigeonholed as an action star who only wears khaki colors, and he had no control over that whatsoever. Nope, nothing to do with that. He definitely had not executive produced all of the movies that he was in in which he played the same character over and over again. He should have done Song Song Blue. Yeah. Might have worked out better. It would have been incredible.

36:48Jeremy Allen White. Uh-huh. Yeah. Given it is all in your classic, you know, angsty biopic. Weird movie. Just picking a really odd sliver of life, but, you know. Still haven't seen. Yeah. It's my Song Song Blue. It's, men will literally write a hugely critically famed album instead of going to therapy is, it's kind of, I am proud though that of the music movies that both of you and I have not seen, I made the right choice because mine, mine didn't get nominated for anything. So I now, now I have no, I don't have any reason to watch it. Yeah, all right. Well, I have homework. Don't worry, it's kind of long.

37:27Oscar Isaac. Oh, yeah, for Frankenstein. Yeah, I think really miscast in that. We'll talk more about that in a future episode, but, he's like genuinely bad in that movie, right? Yeah, I think he was actively bad. We're going to try to find someone who disagrees with us. Yeah, we need to find someone who'll fight back. Brandon Fraser, Jesse Plemons. Plemons, I think, probably came really close. Yeah, I just think I'm so unenthusiastic about that movie that it's been hard for me to... He's really good, but he's also kind of good in the way that you think Plemons is going to be good. Yeah. Emma Stone is good in the way you think she's going to be good.

37:59It's a Yorgos Lanthimos movie in the way you think it's, you know... Again, we're going to talk about it later because it's a Best Picture nominee, But I think that my hunch, given how much they liked Begonia elsewhere, my hunch would be that Plemets was sixth. Yeah, I would agree. Oh, also Russell Crowe, Nuremberg, another real movie that definitely. Once in a while from that premiered at Toronto, right? I feel like every couple weeks from September to now, someone would sort of drift out of the woodwork in my life and be like, I think Nuremberg might be doing something quietly at like these little regional festivals.

38:33And it never stuck in my mind completely, but it was always sort of there in the background. Except that when you just said that, I was like, oh, I forgot about that. Yes, it's a movie that came out this year. Also, shout out to Daniel Day-Lewis for coming out of retirement to support his son for a nominee. A movie that also... It's a real case against nepotism. Yeah, you know. He was happily retired. Went out on such a high note. Yeah, like, you know, maybe like making shoes by hand or doing all, you know, whatever Daniel Day-Lewis does for fun. He and Rebecca Miller just fixing their yurt or whatever they live in.

39:04Exactly. And then look at that. Came back. I was like, I'll do this for you, my son. We will work on this together. And then people hated that movie. I didn't even hear much good about him, like his performance, which is, that's really rare. I know. You're like, this is like, I think everyone's like, this is the greatest actor of our generation. We're talking about a movie called Anemone, by the way. I don't think we said that. Anemone. Anemone. See, that was another problem with that movie is that no one could say the goddamn title. Yeah. Wow, there were a lot of best actors. I know, Lee Byung-kun even.

39:30Like, that was an outside case. What do we think about the no other choice of it all? Because that, it feels like that was very much in the mix for a long time and then yet didn't. Yeah, I don't know. It was not one that I got the feeling. As we've discussed, my vibes assessments are never wrong. I did not get the feeling that it was getting that kind of traction. You know, again, like, Neon had all of these international films, these, like, lauded international films that were in contention. This was one of them. I feel like it's just not as good a movie as, you know, some of these others. I agree.

40:07Including Surratt, which got sound and international Surratt. But, like, yeah, it, I don't know. I mean, I think, like, I think Lee Binh-kun is very good in it. I think he's, you know, got a great kind of, he's also got a great narrative behind it. but like that was also Wagner Morris you know like they were kind of on the same track of like these are actors who have been who've rattled around in Hollywood to a certain degree but like have gone back you know and made movies that like just showcase their incredible leading man-ness in their home turf those are old Neon movies? yes yeah so Neon the only international feature film nominee that Neon didn't have is Voice of Henry Job right?

40:48yes no one has that? no I think that Willa is distributing it. So a small distributor. But that's a very small distributor. Yeah. And they had started campaigning before the distributor came on. So they were kind of going it alone. But yeah, like Secret Agent, it was just an accident. Sentimental Value and Surratt are all Neon movies as is the Park Chan-wook film. It was easily, it could have been 5 for 5 for Neon. Which would have been remarkable and good for them in a way. But also I think increasingly I'm a little bit worried about Neon's stranglehold on these movies. like yeah i mean maybe it's no one else but is touching them or i don't know i mean it feels like it's also you're like okay they're they are good i think at marketing them um some go do better than others these are not easy movies to always market but it does feel like you know what we're commending them on is is mostly an incredible act of shopping at can't well exactly yeah you know i mean i think the thing about the shopping of it all is like were it not for frankenstein which over indexed i mean it did so much better than i mean again we're gonna do an episode on it but like i don't like that movie uh i'm happy for lordy that's cool um but like were it not for frankenstein we've said it before on the show like they were fucked but they did a good little bit of shopping at sundance and bought train dreams there and like so they're on the they were they were always probably going to be on the board with train dreams for something and then and Frankenstein ended up picking itself up and writing its campaign.

42:17But the George Clooney movie that doesn't exist and the Catherine Bigelow movie, those were completely DOA for Netflix. So yeah, the shopping aspect at festivals can count for a lot. I would really be curious to see, and this is something we can talk about in the future too, but Neon has barely produced any of their own movies. I think they did Spencer, right? The Diana movie with Kristen Stewart. I think that was homegrown. That sounds entirely possible. Right. But yeah, they don't... Unless I got drunk and funded that, because I've done that before. So, I don't know. I've warned you about that.

42:51It's so tempting. And then suddenly you've just sunk down like$5 million on this. I got Natalie Portman that Oscar nomination, didn't I, for Jackie? Yeah, I mean, their model has been much more about acquisitions or like co-producing, right? Like, I think like when they do get into something early is when they're stepping into something that is already kind of in the works with funding from many different places. to kind of co-produce or something. So unlike, say, A24, which has produced a lot more on their own, yeah, Neon has been much more about betting big on international films and kind of like stepping in.

43:23And I bet, you know, speaking of A24, I bet they're pretty happy this morning. You know, like Marty Supreme, which is their big play, did just about as well as I expected it to. I think it ended up in all the categories I thought it would, screenplay, actor, picture, director. I was maybe starting to think that there could be a little momentum for Gwyneth Paltrow or even for Kevin O 'Leary because like people have talked about those performances a lot. But I think ultimately the supporting categories were just a little too stuffed for. Yeah. And no Odessa. Yeah. I guess that was the other one that people were talking about.

44:02But that performance seemed to have been polarizing. Or it wasn't the performance. is it was more like I saw on Twitter people being like this person literally didn't exist two days ago and now all of a sudden people are talking about her getting and it's like well no she was on a television show for a long time isn't she? Yeah and she's on isn't she on I Love LA? She's also on that. Yeah. But I think that's what people were saying they're like all of a sudden she's this co-star of an HBO show she's getting Oscar buzz for this Timothee Chalamet movie but no one knew who she was. And she's a Nepo baby of course.

44:29She is. So I cannot remember if we talked about this last time but someone when my co-workers brought up that someone on Twitter had been like ferociously defending Odessa by being like, she's not a Nepo baby. How can you call the child of a voice actor is not a Nepo baby? And I was like, well, that's a really kind of downplaying Adlon's career overall, but also like was a voice actor on like a network animated show that ran for like 14. And is now, yeah, exactly. Like that is actually probably one of the more lucrative things. Yeah. The more lucrative things, jobs you could pick up, you know.

45:01She's Bobby Hill? Yeah. She's Bobby Hill. But is she not Bobby in the new one because he's grown up? I don't know. Oh, she is. She still is. Okay. We're getting a thumbs up from off stage. So anyway, Odessa will be fine. Yes. You know, I met her mother once at the Vanity Fair Oscar party. Pamela Adlon is her mom. Yes, yes. And it was the year that the New York Times had run this really kind of mean, and I think actually not i'm not saying it's out of brand loyalty but like genuinely inaccurate piece about how the oscar party had sort of faded and it wasn't the cool party anymore yes look like that party like madonna has a party there are other cool jay-z has a part like there are cool parties to go to that night that aren't the vf anyway so all of us at vf that year were feeling a little glum about like oh is anyone gonna come and it turned out to be a perfectly fine evening but anyway i was outside and pamela adlon not to out her bummed a cigarette off me um back when i was smoking.

45:55And I brought some reason I brought up that New York Times article and she or no, she brought it up and she was like, fuck them. Fuck the New York Times. This is the greatest party I've ever been to. And I was like, thank you, Pamela Adlon. So I'm forever rooting for her and her family for cheering me up at that time. Yes. Yes. That's I mean, that's lovely. And I support her coming out in favor of branded parties. Kind of grotesque displays. Displays. Yeah. Opulence. Yeah.

46:31David. Yes. I am so excited about this episode sponsor. Yes. Me too. Might truly be the most excited I've ever had for anything to sponsor this podcast. We're excited to like sponsors that tell you how to like help your finances. Hey, easy. Okay. Okay. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Easy. See, today's episode of Blank Check is brought to you by Nirvana, the band, the show, the movie. Nirvana, the band, the show, the movie. Marie's here, too, because everyone's so excited. Yeah, I love this movie. I mean, I love this band, this show, this movie. Yes. Important correction. This film is finally coming to theaters.

47:08February 13th is the start of the theatrical rollout. Yeah. From our friends at Neon. Neon's bringing it out. We have been waiting impatiently for other people to see this film. We saw this at South by Southwest. one of the best screenings of my life. Truly. Truly. It was an unbelievable experience. Ben, you were there. Had a blast. And I had never seen or engaged with this show previously. Me neither. Most of the group had not. Don't really need it. It was like seven of us. You don't need the context to enjoy. Absolutely. It's a big something. I think you need to know what Toronto is. Because you knew nothing other than us hyping you up for you.

47:42Well, this was the problem. And we should say, it's a city in Canada. Yes. I went in you guys had just been like it's the best thing ever and not just you other people I can't believe how good and I was like this is so overhyped and here's the great thing about David I'm walking in like I felt mad about it where it's just like they've primed it too much for me I like that you acknowledge this because sometimes if we tell you something's good I see you go like put your fists up well I'm just like relax because I need to I can't go in with too much hype because that's not good for my critical experience of a movie and then I thought it was better than the hype this is the thing This movie is truly a miracle.

48:17I think it is the funniest movie of the last 10 years easily. And listeners of the show know I am often bemoaning the state of the theatrical comedy. And this is a movie that provides the thing I've been longing for, which is you go see this with a crowd. It is just electric every five seconds, rolling laughter. And the movie just builds and builds and builds. This is a movie for Matt Johnson. Yes. Director Blackberry, one of my favorite movies the last couple of years. Him and Jay McCarroll started as a web series, became a TV series, and now is a movie. But you don't need to know any of that.

48:51This works as a clean entry point. It's a movie about two friends who are obsessed with their band playing at one venue. They want to play at the Rivoli. That's all you need to know about these guys. Before the lights went down at the South by Southwest screening, I believe you turned to me and said, what do I need to know? And I said, all you need to know is they want to play the Rivoli. They got to play the Rivoli. I've been to Toronto many times. Have you been to the Rivoli? Never. I've stayed on Queen West, though, and I've certainly walked by the Rivoli many times. And I've always been like, oh, yeah, the Rivoli.

49:19It's not Carnegie Hall. No, it's a fucking bar. And you never see these guys. What do you mean? It's the most important music venue in Canada. You never see these guys practice their music. But all you know is that every episode starts with here's the plan. Here's how we play the Rivoli. Right. We got to play the Rivoli. And this movie starts from there and explodes in unbelievable ways. I think this movie is truly like a magic trick beyond just how funny it is. and for how much it's caked in the deep lore of this Nirvana, the band, the show universe that's existed for 15 years. You can just go in knowing nothing and be blown away.

49:52And for a movie that seems kind of slapdash and roughly made from the start, it starts to pull off genuine, like cinematic magic tricks where you cannot believe how this thing was made. What was my Letterboxd review, Griff? Did you see it? No, please tell me. LOL, how did they make this? Truly. That was how I felt. How did this get made? I was also just like, how did they make this? I don't get it. You don't understand how they're getting away with it legally. You don't understand how it was cleared for release. And there is a melding of scripted and non-scripted, them engaging with real people on the street where the line between what is planned and what is not boggles your brain.

50:32It was my favorite thing I saw all of 2025. And now it's coming out in 2026. Now, listen, I do have to do some talking points. Do some talking points. Nirvana, the band, the show, the movie is in theaters February 13th. Get tickets now. We must say this. Nirvana, the band, the show, the movie. They're very clear that we have to say the title of this thing a few times. Nirvana, the band, the show, the movie. Why? It's a really simple, easy title. Nirvana, the band, the show, the movie. It really is a kind of like going cold expecting something fun. I don't think you need too much more than that.

51:04I know it sounds unwieldy or whatever, but just like I think you're going to have a pretty good time. If you trust our opinion at all, take this recommendation. Yes. Don't look it up. Go in. And I really, really doubt there is any chance you will be disappointed. In theaters, February 13th. Get your tickets now. Get your tickets now. Nirvana, the man, the show, the movie.

51:34I feel like as we come to the end of these initial observations, maybe it is worth talking about one of these movies the movie that was surprise yes one of F1 yeah like was I would say I mean like people have been calling this people have been yeah Clay Davis at Variety shout out he did call it I guess Sean Fennessey apparently for months also for months and months has been calling it so like people have been I had it at one point on my anchor I'm not making that up I really genuinely did but that was a long time ago I mean I it is not one I would have predicted though I feel like it does not entirely surprise me that it got in there.

52:13Yeah, I think that, you know, kind of going back to Ben's question about how this all works, like everyone's voting on their own category, their own branch, but they're also all voting on Best Picture. And there are a lot of technical categories. And I think the tech people really admire F1. That's one component of it. The other, which you have said, Alison, is that like people, like Hollywood likes movie stars. They like fast cars, look at Ford v Ferrari and all that stuff. Like, there's enough to satisfy two different sides of Academy voters to get it in there. Yeah. So it also, in addition to Best Picture, it got editing, it got sound, and it got visual effects.

52:49Yeah. You know, so like those are your classic, like, this is a blockbuster kind of nominations otherwise. But for all that, I don't think anyone was ever talking about Brad Pitt as a Best Actor contender. I do feel like a large part of why people like this movie is because it showcases Brad Pitt in a, like, enshrines him in this, as a movie star in this way that is like. And it's about that. It is about how great he is and people try to, like, replace him, but actually. Right. He's kind of irreplaceable. Yeah. Yeah. Like, it, you know, was directed by Joseph Kaczynski. It echoes, like, Top Gun Maverick a bit.

53:26also funny in both of them that they're like you know in Top Gun you're like when he's young he's right all the time like he's the young hot shot but he's like he's right all the time and then when he's older he's like he's the experienced voice who's right all the time so wait who do we think Cruz has gotten this treatment now and now Brad Pitt has who is another like big older like male movie star who's like currently like straightening his tie and like making sure the bouquet is right as he is about to go into Joseph Kaczynski's office to be like, can you do that for me? Can you make a movie about how I am actually irreplaceable?

54:04Like, is there another movie star who would fit that bill? I feel like it'll be someone like Wahlberg who does not have the presence. Please, Mr. Kaczynski, I've been good. Please, sir. But you know, I don't think he has the same presence, but I feel like that's maybe the kind of like... That's a good one. That's a good call. I mean, yeah, he never, he wasn't quite at that echelon. And I mean, I mean, honestly, at this point, maybe Dwayne Johnson. Oh, yeah, I know. He could definitely use the help as well. Yeah, but it's just funny. Like when Brad Pitt walks into this movie, he is wearing like, I feel like this array of slightly hippie-ish looking, but like beautiful, like kind of knit tops.

54:42And he does not look ageless, but he looks great for his age. And like in this way that suggests he has like a bit of burnished patina, you know, as if he's not aging, he's developing a patina. He's like crinkling at the corners of his eyes. He's like brass hardware in your kitchen. Yeah, exactly. Like it is like the movie like enshrines him in this way that is very much. And I wonder if there is. And you have Carrie Condon just being like, hachi machi. Yeah, exactly. Like, hello. Yeah. I mean, I feel like. And I wonder also if there is a little bit of for like kind of like older, slightly contrarian members of the Academy to be like, I don't care about the stuff about his personal life.

55:20Like, I don't care. You know, like this is he is unreplaceable, you know, like you cannot he is irreplaceable. Like he he's doing something that no one else can. Like, like, like, look at that. Like, I don't have to bother about all of the stuff that continues to, you know, emerge from his incredibly, you know, bitter divorce battles. We have definitely said on this podcast, and I do agree with this, that like for the most part, Internet discourse does not really get into like voters heads. that said i do think there is some sort of tabloid discourse that does and they're really resistant to a lot of it you know there is like a lot of like credible enough stuff about brad pitt like and what happened with him and angel angel lee and the kids that like you know a lot of people are like i'm done with him but whatever but i do think there is a big enough contingent in hollywood that's like like no that's not my business and we will never know for sure and he's like one of our rates and you know right i think it's also i mean it's always been easier uh you know as we've as we've continued to litigate like what actually sticks to people which just seems to be almost nothing um like the idea that this was like um within his household right like that like we've it feels like we have essentially decided like domestic stuff yeah is is not like part of any public calculation, or at least the industry seems to have decided that.

56:45And so, I don't know. I know some people have described F1 as this act of, like, rehabilitation for Brad Pitt, but frankly, I don't think Brad Pitt has ever, like, in the public eye, needed it. Like, I think that... He won that Oscar, and it was sort of like, you know, we love you. Thanks for all the fish, you know, basically. And now, post this, you can do whatever you want. Yeah. I mean, you know, it stuck for like Kevin Spacey because Kevin Spacey was apparently a nightmare to work with. Right. And wasn't making people nearly as much money. Right. Right. And Brad Pitt, like as a producer, produces a lot of like, you know, respected and like best picture winners.

57:25Exactly. And often deal with like very serious kind of topics as well. So yeah, you can feel that Brad Pitt is load-bearing within the industry in ways that some other people have not been or have been proven easier to discard. And F1, you know, is Top Gun, but they're on the ground and the stakes are lower. But it has that really, you know, it's exciting to watch. It's shot pretty well. I thought it looked a little tinny at some points. No, it's a little antiseptic in terms of the look of it is a little too slick. Whereas Top Gun felt a lot more golden-hued and sort of more developing. Because obviously it's all taking place as Tom Cruise is dying after blowing up in the sky.

58:08If people have not read Alice's amazing piece about how almost all of Top Gun Maverick is, I do feel like that's the only way to really explain the kind of amazing oddness of the look of that movie, where it is almost entirely in Golden Hour. but yeah like F1 is not in golden hour it is like a little blue tinged it's a little chilly yeah yeah it's you know it takes place in the UK a lot of it and then like bouncing around Europe but yeah it looks chilly it has like a kind of cool undertone and cool you know could be greeted as sort of slick and I do think that like here's a big budget Hollywood partnership with a major brand you know in f1 like the movie is essentially advertorial you know um f1 is so pop it's finally getting really popular in the u.s um it was a great smart bit of like cynical business synergy for you know the studio and an f1 to do this movie it performed very well and it's like a big robust kind of masculine hollywood product that doesn't involve boy princes riding sandworms or singing witches or whatever.

59:20And I think that there's a definitely contingent in the Academy that's like, oh, good. And you might say, well, then why didn't they do that for Ferrari? Ferrari does a lot weirder movie, like the Michael Mann biopic with Adam Driver. It's American actors doing weird Italian accents. It's like very much about, it's like very interior. There's not much racing in it. And then when there is, there's a horrific accident. Yeah, like a really terrible accident. And whereas F1, where, you know, suspenseful things happen, And it is for the most part about like the roaring engines of the cars, the roaring engine of Brad Pitt movie star and the roaring engine of Hollywood, you know, and there you go.

59:57Yeah, it is. It's a much easier movie to drop into because, yeah, it's also not about like a dynastic infighting or things like that, you know, like Euro people, you know, it's like real American guy, you know, a real American guy. Like, I think Ferrari, in a weird way, probably subconsciously suffered from being close enough to House of Gucci. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I would agree. Where people were like, am I just watching that movie again? I think also, I mean, like, it does, you know, make the case for this kind of, like, this American swaggering into this, like, much more international scene and doing things in his, like, kind of perverse American exceptionalism way.

1:00:34Yeah, of being like, I've just got this talent. Like, I've just, like, no one else. and I've got this true passion. Like, I've got, you know, like, and yeah. But I think also, like, there is a, you know, it's not an accident that he kind of looks Paul Newman-esque, you know, when he walks into this movie. I think it is, like, very much wedding, that tradition of, like, movie stars who also dabble in racing. Sue McQueen. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Like, NA really wants to, I think that there's something about that. There's something about this. Frankie Muniz. um those associations that uh people like you know like it like you like you said it is that like very kind of like traditionally masculine but also like it has this long kind of like hollywood tradition of like looking cool like these are actors leading men but they also look at this cool thing they're doing yeah so it it is like it's a surprise best picture nominee in that like it was not being spoken about but it was always there it was always a possibility you know the academy has done things like this before where they just like a big piece of technically proficient hollywood product that is a cut above you know your sort of standard um commercial release and and that was enough i mean i think it's you know it's it was never going to get acting nominations i don't think kaczynski was ever going to get in for director but i also feel like this is an Apple film, famously expensive one, though it did make a lot of money in the box office.

1:02:02But like, you know, for all the Apple, like with Coda had this like freak incident. Which Coda costs more though. Yeah, Coda costs like$450 million. Well, they had to buy the state of Massachusetts to make that work. And then they tried to sell it, you know, but at a loss. It was at a loss. It really depreciated in that time. No, but I mean, like I don't feel like Apple gave it much of a push. You know, I got like, I feel like one or two... We weren't being courted as members of the New York Film Courts. I mean, probably because they were like, the New York Film Circle is not going to give F1 anything.

1:02:34We gave us cinematography, didn't we once? Did we get to something? I don't know. But we gave Maverick something. Yeah. That's true. But that was different. That was different. But yeah, I mean, it feels like this was just one of those things where it felt relatively organic. It was not just the result of someone pushing this relentlessly. It was that people were like, I like this movie. Yeah, it's just lingering in people's minds. You know, I think of, you know, definitely, I know, out of the 10 Best Picture nominees, F1 is the only one whose ending I have not seen. How? I went to go see it in theaters.

1:03:07Oh, so I tried to go to a press screening. Yes. Even though I had just been told by my former boss that he didn't want reviews anymore and there was no reason for me to go to screenings. And so I was like, oh, well, I'll try to get, I don't know, I'll go anyway. The air conditioning was broken and it was one of those days last summer when it was literally like 100 degrees. I would just like to say, I watched the movie at that screening where they handed us fans and were like, the air conditioning is broken. I walked in and I was like, absolutely not. It was actually like kind of endearing because you would look down at the crowd and it was like, you know, almost like a church service in the summer, like everyone fanning themselves.

1:03:39Sure. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Drinking sweet tea. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So I guess it was June. So I didn't go to that. So I went to go see it on my own, like in like Regal Essex, downtown Manhattan. and it was a Sunday in June it was the last Sunday in June if that tells you anything I had to go to a pride thing it was pride Sunday in New York and I was meeting friends at a great bar in the East Village called boiler room and I forgot that there were going to be 20 minutes of ads and previews and or maybe 30 actually in this case so the movie started half an hour late and I was going to be late to meet my friends for this big pride thing that we were going to do And I chose Pride over F1.

1:04:19So literally, he was getting into the car to do the last race. And I was like, well, I got to go. Sorry, Brad. Sorry, Danson. Let me spoil it for you. He was dead all along. It was all a death dream that he was having. He was next to Trumpers in that plane. Yeah, exactly. Like, as the plane was explaining in his head, he was cars crashing. And it was all a death dream. And then you saw someone's head sitting behind them, and you think it was maybe Mark Wahlberg. Suggesting a movie to come. Yes, exactly. Yeah, so I'll have to go back and watch F1's, at least its ending. but without spoiling anything does it end in a way that sends the audience out of the theater feeling excited I would imagine so sure of course everyone breaks into song and then you know they sing you out singing yeah exactly

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1:07:37Suko. He was the little Kong baby. Suko. Suko. Suko.

1:07:51so are there other movies in the past that have kind of come in and surprised like this um yeah there were i mean one of the a bad surprise years ago was when um steven daldry's extremely loud and incredibly close got a best picture nomination and i think maybe didn't get anything or got one other max von zaito i think was nominated for a supporting actor for that but it was like a total like everyone hated that movie it was based on a book that people i guess kind of liked it was 9 11 sandra bollick or no tom hanks dies really early on in the movie like it's just kind of like um so that was a weird one um you know there are other sort of sadder examples where like selma the ava duvernay film only got best picture and Best Song nominations and like David Oyelowo didn't get Best Actor nomination.

1:08:41So there are definitely these kind of lone like rogue Best Picture nominees in the past. I'm looking to see if they're... Is that kind of a consequence of the having the 10 categories that you have these big movies that have the Best Picture nom but not a lot of other noms and they just sort of feel like they're walking dead? I feel like there are also like there will be movies that will get in like best picture and then some kind of craft categories and that's it like that i feel like that always happens right like or at least like since there have been this many yeah um like i think coda coda winning best picture with only three nominations total was a big deal it won all three awards it was nominated for uh which is kind of crazy but normally a best picture winner is probably going to be more deeply represented in in other categories yeah um so yeah when when And these, like in F1, I don't think there is a single person in Hollywood who's like, F1 could win Best Picture.

1:09:39Right. It's not. Right. It's just the industry, or at least the industry as reflected in the Academy being like, well done. Yeah, we like this movie. So, yeah, I think we can probably say that F1 has probably gotten as far as it's going to get this season. I mean, something crazy could happen. I mean, it could win in the tactical categories. Yeah. But Best Picture, this is... No, there's no way it's going to win Best Picture. It got a solid 10th place. Yes, and you know what? It's an honor just to be nominated, etc. As we close this nominations episode out, I'm curious, Allison, do you want to bid adieu, say, do an in-memoriam for one of your little happy horses?

1:10:17I will say, I was hoping for weapons to get in a 10th slot. I think that would have been a great fun pick. I know that was one you were talking about. I also, I mean, like the doc category is impossible to predict like it is such it is so like weird and like maybe more subject to the whims of like a harder to parse group than any other category but um my undesirable friends julia lochtev's like five plus hour it was always going to be a tough tough road anyway like it was um it campaigned without distribution it's five and a half hours long it is told in chapters so they had to get like a special they had to get a ruling that it you know did not right get fall under the the oj uh made in america rule and get declared actually a tv series um and but like i i think probably that hurt it as well it got a lot of critical awards but it did not get in for best asking academy voters to watch something that long yeah that might be that's difficult yeah and i can see people being like this is not a movie like excuse me this is a tv show yeah yeah um i mean my in memoriams would be stuff that was like never gonna happen like wouldn't it be cool if ben wishaw had had some attention for peter hujar's day beyond like you know like he got a spirit nomination i believe um i mean josh o 'connor yeah the mastermind i think in a much slower year that like he would have been talked about more instead he was like never a possibility yeah i thought maybe like um maybe Sorry Baby could get in in screenplay maybe 28 years later could have gotten in in like a technical category cinematography or something if I had legs I was hoping for more I mean Rose Byrne got in for Actress but that was it that could have been an interesting screenplay for sure yeah cinematography the editing yeah oh I think that Isop Rocky gives like really one of the great like for supporting for Highest to Lowest I think that is one of the great like kind of breakthrough performances of the And he's good in If I Had Legs.

1:12:22He is really good in that too. But yeah, I thought he was like mesmerizing in Highest Lois. Well, look, there's a reason. I mean, we should have a breakthrough performer Oscar or something. Yeah, except it's so hard to be like, what does it mean that someone's breaking through? Is Kevin O 'Leary a breakthrough? Yes, he is. Special appearance. Kate Hudson is kind of a breakthrough. Special appearance, yeah. She hasn't been doing much acting. Right. You know, by the poll term. I think my biggest, though, that we've already kind of talked about is like, I don't love loved the movie as a whole. But I thought Seyfried could have pulled it out in the end and then didn't.

1:12:54But otherwise, I don't know. I feel weird. I'm happy. Yeah. No, I think they're good. I mean, honestly, what I mostly miss about Seyfried, beyond the fact that I think she's very good in that movie, is that she's such a kind of delightfully, genuinely eccentric person in doing press, and I would have liked to see her do more on the award circuit. She is someone who does not seem to care about public image in really any serious way. And that is a rare quality that needs to be cherished. I agree. Well, Allison, thank you for breaking this down with me. It's been fun. I know. We've got a lot more movies to talk about in the coming weeks.

1:13:27I know. We did it, though. We made it here. Yeah. Again, we're at the final base camp. We're getting our lungs adjusted. To us and leave our corpses somewhere near the summit. Oh, for all to see as they attempt awards podcasts in the future. Be like, we were here. Our frozen bodies be a warning to you. we'll see you next week when we will be talking about chugga chugga chugga chugga chugga train dreams is that good? that was beautiful it was like it was a really unexpected way for that movie to begin but I thought it was surprising as well I can't hurt this feeling yes anyway we'll be talking about the rip-roaring comedy train dreams next week so give it a watch if you haven't yet it's on Netflix easy to find Thank you.

1:14:40Thank you.