Today, Gary returns, and we continue our conversation about Shia LaBeouf, Oscar-winning musical movies and some of our top movie picks.
We finished our discussion about “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Judy,” both movies where the lead actors won Oscars but the movies’ critical receptions failed to reflect that. That leads us to touch on the film “Rocketman,” and how while the former two movies had their lead actors win, Taron Edgerton didn’t even get nominated for his role as Elton John (despite being aggressively campaigned). We argued that Taron and the whole movie were more deserving of accolades than some of the others.
We continued talking about Oscar snubs with Edgerton, as well as Adam Sandler, who seemed to be a lock-in at the time for his role in the film “Uncut Gems” (he won the Lead Actor Independent Film Spirit award, but was not nominated by the Academy). Then, we talk about movies that we’re not sure should have received as many accolades as they did. Gary and I debate the “Joker,” how it was polarizing, etc. We agreed about the Best Actor win, but we weren’t sure about a handful of other things in the movie. We both agreed it was possibly a poor representation of mental health and that some of its dialogue was on-the-nose.
Eventually, we got into Edgar Wright and how the next two movies he has coming up—”The Last Night in Soho” and a book adaptation, “The Chain”—are big departures from his previous works. That ties into our conversation about “Joker” and Todd Philips, formerly director of “The Hangover” Trilogy. We discuss how Joker was definitely a big jump for him.
Gary and I touch on some of our top movies. Oddly, we also dissect the concept of a “Top 5” list and how it’s difficult with movies—complicated stuff. Regardless, I talk a bit about “Boogie Nights,” “Honey Boy,” “A Star is Born” and maybe “Beautiful Boy.” Gary says the only top movies he has for sure are “Goodfellas” and “Peanut Butter Falcon.”
Before we get into our conversation about the story behind “Peanut Butter Falcon”’s production and the on-set friendships that were formed, we take a quick detour into talking about Lucas Hedges and how pops up in every indie movie of the past four or five years. We also debate which Tarantino movie would go in our Top 5.
We circle back to our Shia conversation, talking about how Shia and Robert Pattinson left the public conversation for a while, but now they’re becoming more widely recognized with their roles in a pretty big way. Gary talks about how initially he didn’t take Pattinson seriously, and just thought of him as “The Vampire,” but eventually realized he was a serious character actor. We talk about how the films “Good Time” and “The Lighthouse” completely revolutionized Pattinson in our minds. We also go a little bit into the extensive pre-production process for “The Lighthouse” and how Pattinson is not normally accustomed to rehearsing, while Willem Dafoe is a seasoned theatre actor.
Gary goes into the full story behind “Peanut Butter Falcon”’s production process, and then we finish the conversation by talking about all of the upcoming Marvel projects.
Thank you for tuning in; my episodes are available almost anywhere you can stream music, like Spotify and Apple. If you find somewhere you can’t stream it, let me know.
I’m still working on socials for my podcast, but in the meantime, I will be posting episode updates on my Instagram @jackldavis14. Stay cool, everyone. I’ll see you next week.
Below, I’ll include a link to Adam Sandler’s Spirit Awards win speech, because it is hilarious and beautiful.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihalG3Rw_QA
Listen now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts!