This week, we start discussing Soul‘s shift to Disney+, but we get sidetracked by Jeffrey Dahmer and our fears about Ryan Murphy making a series about Dahmer’s killing spree. We then get back on track and discuss Alyssa Rosenberg’s op-ed about cancelling the Oscars and the challenges faced by the COVID Oscars and what it could mean for the film industry as a whole. Join us!
The 92nd Academy Awards did the unbelievable–they gave Best Picture to the actual best picture. This week we’re celebrating Parasite’s Oscar triumph and Bong Joon-ho’s sweep at an overall uncontroversial and pretty solid Oscars. Then we discuss Birds of Prey’s unfortunate box office performance and what it means for the DC cinematic universe when even their good movies don’t do well. Is it just a problem with this movie? Or DC movies? Or is this superhero fatigue? Join us as we discuss all this and more!
Kayleigh digs into the publishing controversy around American Dirt, Oprah’s latest book club selection which is mired in accusations of appropriation and stereotyping. Then we do one last round of Oscar odds before the Academy Awards next week, and we talk Netflix’s surprising decision to end The Crown after five seasons, which is either Netflix’s mysterious algorithm at work, or maybe something to do with the recent royal drama. Or both! Join us as we dig into a busy week in pop culture.
The 91st Academy Awards have come and gone, and all that’s left is to pick up the pieces and make sense of a very up and down, back and forth show. On the one hand, the no-host experiment paid off. On the other: Green Book won Best Picture, which will almost instantly age into a poorly remembered choice. This week, we dive into the Oscars, the good, the bad, the Bohemian Rhapsody of it all. The show was not a disaster, but some retrograde winners reveal a divided Academy pushing back against the recent membership inclusion effort. Join us as we break it all down and get into what worked, what didn’t, and just why it is that Green Book will soon be joining the ranks of worst Best Picture.
In 1989, Spike Lee’s masterpiece Do the Right Thing premiered at Cannes, kicking off a year of controversy. Film critics blamed any potential race riots on Lee, the Cannes jury awarded Steven Soderbergh’s sex lies and videotape the Palme d’Or, something Spike Lee is still salty about, and then in 1990 came a truly momentous Academy Awards. This week, we take a look at the 62nd Oscars, honoring the films of 1989. This is the year Driving Miss Daisy won Best Picture and Do the Right Thing wasn’t even nominated. It’s the year Harvey Weinstein flexed real campaign muscle, guiding My Left Foot stars Daniel Day-Lewis and Brenda Fricker to Oscars–something he would lord over women in the industry for decades to come. With Spike Lee once again in contention this year, and up against the Miss Daisy-esque Green Book no less, we examine the narratives and Oscar strategies that took hold in 1990 and continue to impact the Academy Awards today.
