2022 Oscars Special with Film Critic Van Connor

Welcome to another episode of the Friday film club. And this week is a particularly special one because unless you've been hiding in a shed, uh, you know, that it's Oscar's weekend, uh, the biggest night in Hollywood. And I've decided as this is the first year that I've been incredibly detached from the films nominated for Oscars, that I would rope in a film critic, extraordinary fan Connor to do me a bit of education.

Thank you for having me on limb. This is a genuine pleasure. I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm glad you're doing this. It's always nice to hear your, your thoughts on films. To be honest. Yeah.

They're going to be a little bit limited when it comes to this batch of, of nominees, but, so yeah, we'll try and keep it quite broad.

Well, it's been, it's been a long pandemic, so it's completely understandable to be out of touch with the w w with the film. I mean, I know like, you know, week of release film critics who genuinely say that the same thing, like now, like Matt Turner will say to me every, like, what, what, what do you think of the awards ones this year?

Because I can't tell. And I'll be like, well, surely it's got to be this list of 40 and, you know, I'll, I'll WhatsApp the memo from like, oh yeah, I've seen most of these. Thanks, but I've not, yeah. That one. And we do have this back and forth and it's usually just before the nominations come out and then we find out like, which ones.

Actually do get the time of day in which one's down. Um, this is one of those amusing ones as well that you get as a critic, you get, um, you get these award screeners through every year. Do you know about these cardboard special award seasons sleeved versions, like a DVD copy of the film and they've made like a proper professional standard.

Obviously they look like limited edition things and I've got a whole shelf in my living room covered in the, and you asked about the full disclosure, you are supposed to destroy them. I don't think anyone actually does. Like, we just keep them as collectors. Like was what are they going to take you for piracy?

It's out in the world by them. He's supposed to destroy like a year later anyway. Um, so when you get these, these little award screeners and the ones they send you, or like for your consideration, Maybe 50 of these things through every November, December, and there's loads of films that you've never heard of in your life that might have like one actor that you vaguely heard of and that, and they put up for consideration.

Okay. And you don't know whether or not to watch some of them because you know that you'll never, ever hear about them against you. You get a little bit actually about this there's live loads of award screeners, like for movies, that big studios thoughts, we're going to be a big deal that just evaporated past critics and the public, you know, the star, like people who a year later will become a huge deal.

And so. Very very straight. I've got on the team ones that start Amy Adams. I don't know what it is about Amy Adams. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's the reason I say that is because there there's one this year backslide reviewed on off screen called I think it's the eyes of Tammy Faye was only about like three or four weeks ago and it stars Jessica chassis and Andrew Garfield.

And I think we said at the time, it's the kind of thing you put out with the faint hope that it will get, you know, get you into award season, but it never does. And it did actually wind up getting it's. That was one of those I looked at and thought, this is the award screener that comes through my door that I don't watch.

And that we never hear about ever again. It's like, I've got vocal Brian Banks. I think that seems to stall like known people. Same thing. Yeah.

Yeah. I remember in my days of reviewing films, the number of screen is I'd get through. There was always a whole batch of films that would come out and kind of back end of the year that w they, they weren't particularly good.

They weren't even particularly entertaining. They were just made to try and crack the award circuit. And 90% of them just fall through. 'cause, they're just not very good films

that now that, that is, that, is it in a nutshell, that is absolutely the case. It is, you know, I think to be honest, the best parody anyone ever did of the Oscars, um, came amazingly of all places from the TV show, um, American dad, which was, I think Roger, the alien had a, they did a mock bond episode and his evil plan to take over the.

Bond villain style was to create he'd come up with a movie called Oscar gold. And it was, it was a parody of like everything to do with the academy awards, but it cuts deeper than even Tropic thunder hat. And I think it had like Roger, the alien as like a blind, disabled, uh, bummed boy in the Holocaust in Nazi Germany being like shelled around him.

And it was, it was the most like horrific harrowing thing I didn't want to cut with. And the joke of the episode was everyone who even watched the trailer was moved to tears and applauded at the end. And it's, it's the greatest parody anyone's ever come up with for award season, uh, for me. And so many films, just like it, the only thing that's ever come close to that maybe Tropic thunder.

Yeah.

And Tropic thunder for anyone who hasn't seen it. Why haven't you said it because it's a great film, you know, and yeah. Rob. Best performance of his career. And I'm including that in that.

And he was Oscar nominated for that. Robert's out each year. You did get Oscar, like we, it's amazing when you consider the, that kind of day to bypass popular culture.

I don't know if you remember the controversy at the time with Tropic thunder, there was controversy because of what was perceived to be, uh, uh, a mockery of the disabled within the film. Now I will argue I'm a fan of the film, admittedly, but I will argue unbiasedly there that that was done within the context of parodying, the exact thing.

It was not even parodying, but satirizing, the sort of mindset like they are playing characters who believe that's okay. And the joke is that they believe that that is okay and it is not, but that they think they have found an acceptable way to do it. That's the game. Um, be that controversy somehow overshadow the father, Robert Downey, Jr.

Was doing all this black blackface. If you made that move, now, it wouldn't even get seen. The movie would not get seen by enough people for that point to take hold now. And yet, somehow it stays skirted by that. And it got an Oscar nomination, which is, let's not forget an Oscar nomination the same year that a posthumous Oscar, Wednesday, he, the ledger as well.

Yeah. Yeah. Very true. And, uh, I think we're going to talk a little bit more about, uh, how the Oscars have, or maybe haven't gotten more progressive, uh, over the last 20 years or so. Um, but let's dive into some of the questions. So as, uh, anyone who's listened to the show before knows that there's there's six standard questions.

I throw all the guests, this is an Oscar special, so I've mixed it up a little bit and let's, let's dive in. So, what is your favorite Oscar winner

of all time? Right now? I, I didn't want to delve too deeply into this with you in advance. Cause I like, I like an off the cuff answer and most of my, my opinions are sort of long formed on the Oscars.

Anyway. Um, I should explain at some point I'm quite anti Oscar in a lot of ways. When you say Oscar winner though, do you mean like person or film, like actor or film or director? What

I'm going with film on this?

My, my favorite Oscar winning film. There's a couple that leap out within my lifetime as, oh my God.

s in advance of that was that: 1917

Yeah, ongoing, you know, exist an issue with, uh, with the academy and the Oscars, which is it's the same old shit, different day, same shit, different year with only three films that weren't asked. Cause, and we just, we varied them up each year. It's a shell game of which of the same three films. Well, when is it going to be the war APIC or is going to be the slave APIC or is it going to be the black guy and white guy in a car movie?

You know, the driving, miss Daisy movie, is it going to be, we solve racism, Uber driving that movie. It's that? Which one of these three movies are we going to give the Oscar to every year? I, when parasite one, there was that feeling. He had just been so long. Oh my God. Holy shit. Something that deserves it.

Something from outside of the system has one. And I wasn't even thinking like when the announcement came in, I know that, you know, the director awarded already going out next. I know that, you know, he was, it was, yeah, it was the first films to when basketball or language. And then actually when I can as well.

And there was that achievement in the. I really was stunned more than anything genuinely. And they were just taken aback. Oh my God. Something that deserved to win best picture actually. Well, black Panther couldn't finish this, but parasite could get out. Couldn't manage this, but parasite could like a movie that's actually quantifiably the best thing you saw in a cinema that year one best lecture, which is just unheard of, because I don't know if it matters.

Gravity didn't win best picture. I think. 12 years of sleep.

Yeah. And we must also rewind and everyone crash one.

Oh, yeah. I mean, that, that feeds into my, my thing about that, that feeds into that such really the, the, uh, the black guy, the white guy in an Uber solve racism, you know, archetype, because otherwise there's nothing really between driving miss Daisy and great green room, really.

Um, but that's that green room, green book, not green room. Green room is a very, very different movie to Greenbook. First of all, I think Britain is infinitely better movie than green book, because how often does Patrick's Patrick? So Patrick Stewart gets to play a Neo Nazi and try and kill the young checkoff.

I mean, that's a movie, right? That's some motion picture right there. But, uh, you know, the, the folks that deserved to we never went in crash was one of those that you just sat there and thought, yes, you've given it best pager, but what you have just exemplified by doing that is this is the best picture that anybody who works at the academy.

Well, as a film critic saw, and even then not my level of film critic, not me as a film critic, but the, the broadsheet level of the cardigan critic, you know, I mean, no, nobody in the real world gives a shit about crack nobody's saw crash. If you ask someone what the movie crash is about, I've got folding money, says the first person that's that recognizes the name thinks you mean the Cronenberg version, where they fucking the wreckage.

That's a valid point. Yeah. Um, and you know what, going back to parasite. You know, absolutely. Yes. Parasite was the best film of the year and deserved to win. But what I think made that win even more impressive is there was this very Hollywood film, a big war, epic. That was technically very impressive. And you could argue wouldn't have been a bad, best picture winner,

but it would have been

safe.

Yeah. But even being against a film, which was. The safer choice among the academy. Parasite is still one. And I think even, even among parasite fans, and I think everyone kind of wanted parasite to win anyone who had CIN parasite wanted parasite to win. Um, we're still surprised that that happened.

No, I, I completely agree with you.

d, and that's, it that's like: 1917

Cause I'm the, you know, the Oscars we've had since. Quite cut the say like last year it was in no way the same and the show itself, it's off the four. And also I will, I will awards content and there's, I think self to an extent as well, because you know, the film release patent had been so radically shifted by this once in a lifetime events, this once in a century occurrence and you know, the last time there was a pandemic, we didn't really have a film industry.

So, you know, we haven't really gotten to properly, you know, chapel chaplain was still king of the hill. The last time we had a pandemic, you know,

Let's look at the complete other end. Cause I feel like this is, you're probably going to call to say about this one. What's your least favorite Oscar winner,

my least favorite.

Sorry. Can I just PS on the back of that last one, if you had gone with pers on fate on favorite Oscar winner, my answer to that without even really thinking about it would be Nicholas cage, just because I don't think there's ever been such a brilliantly bat shit nuts person after winning an Oscar. Like, no, one's been that note since, oh, other than Gary Busey.

I think Gary BMC and Nicholas cage were in a league of their own because we all forget that Gary of UC and the Oscar love. But in terms of my least, my least favorite Oscar, are we going with movie again? Least favorite movie? Yes. Right. Um, I could, oh, oh, there's there's one. That there's one that gets me into trouble whenever it's about.

ral semesters, right? This in: 1999

And it was that year that really hammered it home for me the year, which Tom Hanks got overlooked for best actor, for saving private Ryan in, in, in, in favor of Berto, Bernini for life is beautiful. And I was just thinking to myself, I was, I remember watching the thumb and I think like 15 at the time. And I just thought to myself, I gather he's a really good expressive performer, but I'll speak Italian.

So he could literally be reading me the phone book, controlling me while I'm doing this. How the hell am I? I am judging this as a physical and emotive performance, which means I'm already doing it kind of a disservice. And I've always had this issue. I do think there should actually be a separate category in the academy awards because for that wave, and this is one of those answers, like I say, it's problematic.

I accept that. It's problematic. Please understand that this is not coming from any place other than how does the academy, which is largely made up of people whose first language is English. How can the academy fairly judge performances, not in a language. They speak as a primary language. You know what I mean?

And there are exceptions to that, to an extent, because a larger, a larger percentage of people, for instance, speak Spanish in the world than speak, then speak Maga saying, well, they said Mandarin that which is ludicrous, more people would speak bander. They would speak nuts, but you know what I mean? Then, then you would then would speak.

And pick any random sit, smallest guidelines, but it's one of those things that I do think, I think there should be a category and this is one of my auntie Oscar things. I think there should be more Oscar categories. I want a best stunts category. I want her best foreign language performance, our best performance in a non-English language category.

I want all the, I want sound to go back to being two categories. I want that best blockbuster category in which is one of the stupidest ideas the academy ever came out with there. You could, you could potentially, you could make that work if you really wanted, you know what I mean? Highest grossing gig, highest grossing film of the year should have an Oscar because it's the only way the most popular movie of the year ever.

Will you know what I mean? Like the Avengers problem, like there was no bigger game in town that year than Avengers and game it's, you know, it was the biggest movie of all time, twice, I believe. But at the same time, It's not going to get any Oscars, unless it's going to be in things like visual effects.

It's about that. Why is there not a best popcorn on, but that Roberto Benini pipping Tom Hanks in 99, that really takes me off that ticks me off in a way that English patients, a movie. So spectacularly, undeserving of actual praise that it got an entire Seinfeld episode dedicated to exactly that somehow still current.

Yeah,

no, I agree. And as far as categories go, I think there's a lot of issues with the categories and I think you're right. There needs to be, they need to find a way to, uh, to, to recognize the sort of nuances that don't currently get celebrated, or maybe shouldn't be celebrated in the current categories.

And I think the, the, the, the glaring, um, example there is, I think. You get rid of gendered acting categories and you replaced them with categories based on genre or type of performance, you know, as you said,

I agree with you. Yeah. I totally agree with that.

Yeah. And I think, you know, we're definitely past the point where we need to separate, um, genders categories, uh, sorry.

Um, performances by gender. Um, and in fact, I had, uh, James Luxford on the show a few weeks back and he did make the valid point that if we did that right now, we'd probably end up with, um, 19 men and Meryl Streep, which, which is the problem, you know?

Absolutely. It's absolutely true. I grant you that inside and to be fair.

That's a fault of the industry entirely, just because there are simply nowhere near as good, a good, uh, uh, a number of roles for women still, which is ludicrous. When you get to the end of the year and you start making your, see this, actually, when it gets to the voting time, like I have to do my, my critics voting thing that I do every, uh, which I'll be really honest.

I usually like formula. I spend weeks thinking of the answers and I spent so long stewing on them. Like then forget to email them through. And I only ever remember for some reason every year on a night outs and I wound up doing it on my phone from like a global something like choose true story that happens like every Christmas.

Um, but you get to that point when you have to think of like, who who's the best performance you saw, and this is for instance, the online critics circle, for instance, they ask and you can tell like, Like it it's left you type anything. Who's the best, like Mim male performance you saw this year and then you think, oh, okay, well I here's 52, so I'm in my hand for it.

And then you notice that you can have 50 actors and you can have 10 actresses. And it's not because of anything other than they're simply that there's that percentage of, of roles there's that literally are five times more, you know, roles going out there to big showy, Oscar Winnie, you know, Oscar worthy kind of roles going out.

And meanwhile, the actress is getting stacked. The African-American actors are getting stiff and people of color getting staffed. Everyone accept. Certain age, ethnicity generally, but in terms of, in terms of roles, but you do tend to find as well, the more interesting performances do tend to come from everyone outside of that category.

I mean, I remember what was the year when we were looking at the, uh, there was a year, we were looking at the best actress list. So we're just like, this is so unimaginative. And it was a list in which he thought a best supporting actress. That was that I was like, why is best of what an actress not gonna J-Lo in the hustle?

Give us something interesting. Cause that was actually a fascinating role. I just the fact that it was J-Lo it worked, I think it was the same year. I was thinking, why was lupitan Django? Not up the best actress for us. Like other than the fact that the academy has historically ashamed of, uh, uh, science fiction, horror like horror more than science fiction nowadays, like science fiction seems to windled its way in now, but horror, the academy is.

Quite terrified of unless Jordan peals, the guy bringing it in.

Yeah, absolutely. And I, I, for one was furious at how little us was recognized at the Oscars. Um, and, uh, I also have a big issue with the supporting category. I think it's become a kind of backup choice for studios to campaign people who aren't quite strong enough to go for league.

I was thinking, I'm trying to remember what the goofy was. I was, it was Judas in the block Messiah last year when they would try to work out when it got to the nominations and it was just this. Fucking ludicrous. Like you've literally told the lead of the movie here that he's the supporting guy. And then also the other way around, I think it was bizarre.

Cause it wasn't, it's kind of debatable as to who the lead in Judas, the black Messiah is. And then they just, they decided arbitrarily after the fact. But just to explain how that works, by the way, um, that is more or less entirely determined by the studio. Like every time and the way that works is that on the, on the ward screen is obviously we get, as you can attest, it tells us the categories that they would like the film to be nominated for.

Believe me, I've got some hilarious ones. Cause somewhere around here, I've got a copy of transformers the last night in which paramount, genuinely wanted that nominated for best picture might be the single greatest case of optimism I have ever in my life. At the same time. I also have a screen at the Deadpool two with, for your consideration that supporting actor, TJ Miller, I mean come on people.

Yeah, yeah. For any of, for people that don't really know the rules and the, the, the kind of mechanics behind the Oscars, there's, there's this huge gap in the, in the, kind of the rubrics that, especially around the acting categories, which you were alluding to whereby. There is no definition of what constitutes a leading performance or a supporting performance.

So studios throw a lot of money telling people to vote for a certain performance in a certain category. And people generally just go with that, which is

baffling. That is absolutely the case. But I mean, having to explain that as well is in a sense kind of tied to the intricacies of just the very core nature of how all of this stuff works in the first place, which is those screener disks and all the promo materials that they ship out to people like you and me of course are paid for by the studio.

The studio has a publicity department, not publicity department has an awards sub a department. You know, they've got a room that room full of cubicles. One of those cubicles is dedicated entirely to awards or, you know, is for a certain amount of the year. And that person's job is entirely. Just send out boxes of promotional moves to people who vote for wounds.

Now, you know, I, I, you know, I want to send out to all the critics. I badly want Bradley Cooper to win best actor for nightmare alley I, the publicist here at Fox Searchlight or whatever it's called. I was at Fox studios. Um, I have decided I would like Bradley Cooper to win best actor. So here is, um, a copy of the hardback book of nightmare alley.

Here is a screener of the film. Here is an action figure of Guillermo Del Toro, uh, signed by gamma Del sorrow. Please accept this FedEx package, which ludicrous amount of shipping we're going to have to pay for all this, because we're doing it to 35,000 people. Paul Guillermo's wrist. Uh, please vote for us when the world season comes around.

So the obvious thing there. No one who's starring in a film that doesn't have that publicity budget is getting considered for that award. So let's never ever for a second ever assume that merits is a valid consideration and batteries because it's not, you could have the greatest movie in the world.

Doesn't matter if you've not got the publicity budget to at the very least make that screen at ESC and just send that in a standard Manila envelope through the post. You've got to get our screen a discount or a link. Now, like that's the thing that's been the equalizer. Actually, the pandemic shifting is all to screen link.

A lot more has brought about some change in that regard. So you will start to see smaller films filter through in due course, if they have, you know, the, the online links being sent there, which is now happening a lot more often, I was very, I was very happy to see something like Palm Springs this last year get like put forward for series Oscar contention grind.

He got picked up by neon. I think he wound up on like Amazon prime in the UK. Great hearing that in awards contention. That

was wonderful. Yeah. And I think that just doing habits as well and like what what's resonant with people it's definitely changing over the last couple of years. Cause you know, you, you, you know, you got a thing, the films, there's a lot of great films out there, but only if.

Become a success only if you get seen. So you, you've got to factor in the impact that environment and context makes to our, our appreciation of films, you know, and sometimes it's potluck, a great film could be released one year and just not hit that. If it was released a couple of years earlier or later, it would hit that's.

That's just the nature, right? That

e the gritty dramatic bond in: 1987

have greasy dramatic bond in: 2005

Yeah.

That's a, that's a valid point. And, you know, on the subject of, uh, things that wouldn't have worked 20, 30 years ago, uh, the Oscars have announced three women are hosting the ceremony this year, um, which is a big step forward for them. And certainly welcomed one, which brings me onto my next question for you.

If you were to host the Oscars, who would you have as your cohost, if anyone.

No, I'll be honest. This was stumping me. This was, this was really stumping me. And, uh, I mean, I I'll be honest. I, my, my, my fantasy answer is like Seth Rogen. Like I would, I feel like Seth Rogan would be great friends, which funnily enough, I think is a line that he comes out with him.

One of his, in fact it is, it's a movie, it's a line from a Seth Rogen movie. I think he says it about Vince born in Knox. I was like, I feel like he and I would be bought, I guess I have the same. Um, I don't know. I have, I have strange real world answers as well. I'd love to do it. Cause I, I w one person I would love to present anything with Alec, Zane to friend of mine.

I would love to do something like presenting with Alex. All the fancy answers. My, my fiance. I think we'd be hilarious. Um, I have loads of strange hands. There's Tony, Earnshaw Tony and Shaw I think would be great. He's a writer for, at the Yorkshire post, uh, Russell, a lot of horror stuff. Uh, the horror stories of Lauren scored and things like that, and worked with him on a couple of things over the years.

And he. One of the driest men alive. Like he is, he looks exactly like if you could ever meet him in the flesh, he looks like Toby Stephens from lost in space and die another day. It looks like Toby Stevens at a barber coat kind of thing. But he's, he's just one, he's one of the most hilarious men alive, but he has a part of it is just that he is just so dry, so dead, and he's absolutely brilliant with it.

Um, other one, uh, John Mosley, a friend of mine and another one, a mutual friend of Tony and Sean. Certainly also great to present anything with, I know a lot of really good presenters that I would love to present things. We, with the Oscars, we've been some, if you're doing the fantasy one though, be like sad, broken, it would be like, cause I would want to do that.

I would want it to be like south I'm nervous, man, but to go and what we can do and he'll be like, here, smoke this. And you'd be like, oh my God, Seth Rogan, what Nana, you know, it would be Kevin Smith, same kind of the, kind of the same manner. Would be Kevin's because I grew up worshiping Kevin Smith or, um, you know, someone whose, whose vibe I enjoy as much as their actual work.

Cause that's always a big thing is once I have to like the people I named, for instance, it tends to be that I like their work as much as I like generally that vibe and tone and energy. So people like Seth Rogan and Kevin Smith tend to be sort of the, the kind of talents I gravitate towards in terms of my entertainment.

Yeah. Interesting. Uh, so as a kind of side question, what do you think has been the, the most disastrous Oscar hosting stint of old.

I think everyone always defaults to James Franco. They nowadays, like everyone comes back well, Hathaway in rank, you know, every time you think you've come on, some doozies over these people, forget like hosting the Oscars.

It's sinks. The Oscars, like you can have the best eyes or the worst house. Right? That's nice thing to the asker. Well, sings the Oscars more often than not tends to be the celebrities. They, the previous winners that they wheel out to read the new way to read out the newest. They tend to be the people that sing the show.

One of the most, probably the, the most famous Oscar thing in recent years has obviously the, the, the incorrect result for, I always forget which way around it went now, was it Moonlight all on whichever one? And it was the incorrect result. And you sit and think like you remember that and how that derailed the show more than you even vaguely.

Remember who did I can't tell you who hosted that? You couldn't tell you put a gun to my head and I can't tell you who hosted that year, but I can tell you it was paid on the way in Warren Beatty at that moment.

Yeah. Yeah. Good point. And do you know what I think if they, if they orchestrated. Uh, so bad.

It's great kind of moments of the Oscars. I think they, their viewing figures would be a lot higher, but they, they S they're just obsessed with having a really glossy, seamless ceremony. That's incredibly self-congratulatory and frankly, um, there's like 7 billion of us around the world, but just don't care about that.

We just want a good

TV, right. It showed, it really showed, uh, when you saw all the, all the trappings stripped away last year with the Panda, the only pandemic era ceremony we've had so far. Cause I think, I don't think this year is going to count. It'd be a lot more normal this year, for instance, than, than before.

But I think when you saw all the tramping stripped away last year, and you saw those celebrities packed into that union square sort of, uh, amphitheater room that they had, I think you realized this really is just like, you know, 20 actors in room. Yeah. Like no one thought excited about this. It's 20 actors in a room and the guy winning best actor, wasn't allowed to do it on video.

So, cool. See, and actually, you know, one of those weird things like the whole thing last year was they had constructed a source of a narrative to how they had, how they had narratively woven the show, which was obviously that was meant to meant to end where the postures, when for Chadwick Bozeman, his widow would get up there and make the speech and it'd be a very moving and emotional thing.

And it would send us off on the right now and during the pandemic, it was kind of what we would have needed. It would have been perfect. No, it would have said something. I think during the. We've all lost people this year. We've, we've even lost some of the best towns around, you know, and, uh, and, and the way they did it just, it, it really did feel like that was an establishment choice, not to belittle Anthony Hopkins, his performance, which is tremendous by the way, because obviously Hopkins one for the, for the father, it is a tremendous performance in a tremendous film, but it ain't no Chadwick Boseman, Mr.

Rainey's black bottom. You know what I mean? Yeah.

Oh yeah. I mean, I loved Bozeman's performance, but I have to say, um, all, you know, the, the, the sadness of, of his death aside, I loved the fact that the academy thought that they could control the narrative to such an extent that they could predict what turned out to be the unpredictable, build an entire ceremony around it.

And then it'll just come crushing. '

cause you got to think about it. You gotta think of it as like the Legion of doom. Like I was depicted in the Simpsons with Mr. Burns and all the people around the table. I don't think only academy has been like people on that you're looking right. And so we're all on the same page.

Right. We give it to, to the Chad kid, the dad won't yell. Okay, cool. We'll do that. Now. That works. Apparently it's a good story. We'll do that. Okay. Well, okay. Check on then it just turns out that nobody would, they're all just like screw you. I'm going to vote for Tony. And I do feel like it does believably feel like that's what happened, but the ceremony being staged away, it was dead.

Just. Show what the Oscars really were, which is, this is just a PR exercise. It's just some people in a room there's no magic to this. Like any magic is it's it's like Bitcoin or art. It's like, look, it's true. Money is a fundamental concept. Only value comes from the value we actually place upon. It is the reason that cryptocurrency exists.

You know, we determine a value on something as a society. We've decided that the Oscars have that because of the level of glamour associated with it. When you sell it out last year, that did kind of not to kind of drop the curtain a little.

Yeah. And I, I understand how that shame kind of falls away a little bit, and people, people really hated on the ceremony last year.

I think I I'm in that very, very small minority that kind of liked it. I liked that it was a bit more stripped back and I, I think they could learn a lot from that in future ceremonies. Um, I think a lot of people hated on it. So maybe they're going to go back to traditional sort of thing this year. But yes, I'm

with you.

I'm with you. I can play. I mean, I'm on record as calling the Oscars cinema Superbowl or the cinematic Superbowl, you know, because that's, that's what it is. It's the big event on our calendar. That's that states conduct the biggest, this nothing comes close, but what, what possibly compares, I mean, award season is the event on the calendar, but the cherry of award season is the Oscars.

There's a reason. It kind of ends with that as a big ceremony, all tails off from that. Like every year, for instance, we always have the big question. What's the first blockbuster out the gay after, after that picture guest. And it is always interesting every year to see what the first one is. I think Marvel about a couple of years.

Um, I mean, don't get wrong. You'll never see one of those win best picture. Like it'll never happen, but you'll respond like every now and again, you do find one. He's like the first picture out the gates after, after the awards, that's kind of amusing,

but I think the worst thing would be if you're filming.

And you make something you're really proud of it. It's really like strong drama and you're, you're talking to the shooters and like, yeah, we've made a decision. We've got the release sort of plan in mind. Um, you know, great. We're releasing in February for the off, you know, because

again, you see that's the same kind of thing.

Yeah, exactly. Because everyone's by, by February, you've got your list. You've got your nominees by February. So, you know, the 10 to 15 films that are absolutely unmissable this award season, and we've got it. I watched power the dog last night, I had missed it. I didn't get to review this as Maria Duarte covered it for the, for the morning star.

And I didn't, I don't think I got linked through Netflix on times why we didn't do it for off screen. Uh, so I sat and I watched the power of the dog last night and it was a case of first of all, gorgeous looking movie, But it's absolutely what I expect from a Jane Campion. That's terrific Benedict Cumberbatch performance, but absolutely what I expect for Burdett come about performance.

And there was, there was so many parts to it though, that I was just lucky at the good, this is so base. And this is, this is the heavy runner for this year. Like this is it. Leading with 12 leads with 12 nominations. The runner up is dune with 11 and. Uh, I, I could write a book on why dune having 11, 11 Oscar nominations is in Alerus for all the best reasons, for all the best reasons on all the most old, most insane reasons in the world do not having 11 Oscar nominations is just brilliantly nuts.

I'm here for, or that in me, I want to just give that only Oscars and I'll be laughing my ass off until doomsday for both rights and wrong reasons. But the power of the dog, I was just watching this thinking. It's very strange because Jane Campion was dead as, as a cinematic. Autor Jane Campion's, Jane Jane Campion's career was over, like she had effectively ended Meg Ryan's reign as America's sweetheart.

Um, you know, because, because, so because of in the course activity, and then from there, it just seemed to get worse. Every Jane Campion with Kevin. She pigs gets a movie, picks up with Netflix that went, oh my God, she's being treated like Graco wick. Like not, not since Greta Gerwig, not since the news of Greta Gerwig is directing an adaptation of little women.

Have I seen a film? So rapturously embraced by people who have not seen it, the power of the dog, because I watch. And th obviously there's all this heap of praise upon like Jessie platter. And I'm just like, where the fuck were you people all these years when he was going off being consistently being the most awesome thing and everything starring it, this guy managed to take a Hollywood comedy that nobody cared about game nights and make it absolutely unforgettable purely by simply standing there stroking a dog.

I mean, good Lord. And then the basic, the performance and from Kiersten dancers, which like Gabba, I feel like she was interchangeable in this because this was a, what we call a lip quiver role. And it's a problem that I, this is something that I really do feel for any, any actress these days who wants to be taken seriously on the award spectrum, which is how.

Of the best actress, nominees, and best actress, ambass supporting actress nominees. And this is not something that gets ported across the gender agenda. Spectrum. This only gets shunted onto women. How many of their roles literally involved? Here's my Oscar clip. My lip is quivering. I have some tears. Oh, look, I am a bit pastier than usual.

And you're like, well, why is it when it's the guys? It's always the impassion speech. Their clip is the impassion speech. When it's the actresses. Oh, these are the nominees. And then you get five clips of, uh, there's three of them that are pasty there's tears and lip quivering. There's maybe one shouting and there's maybe one that's Butte.

Whereas every one of the guys it's, here's my impassioned speech about something. Yeah.

That's, it's

an empower the dog.

It's valid and clearly it works because they've got four, they've got a nomination in every acting category, haven't they? Yeah. That's it, it

works. It's packageable it works within the marketable confines of the established brand of the Oscars.

And that's what needs to change.

Yeah, absolutely. I couldn't agree more, but as we're talking about power of the dog and this year's nominees, before I ask you this question, I'm going to caveat that we are recording this on the 1st of March three weeks before the Oscars. So we are like one PR scandal away from, uh, from this becoming wildly inaccurate.

But what are your evictions to main characters? Oh,

right. You know, I, I, I'll be honest with you. I do think power, the dog will kind of walk it. It's the problem with the answers is like I say, 80 is not unstoppable machine. It is it's the acceptable face of drool, broad sheet critic, cardigan culture. It is what it is.

And they'll never, they'll never come a day when, you know, best Patriot goes to anything fun like this, the word bond will never be used with, with anything connected with best, which it never ever will. And the closest you get to that maybe is Argo, which quotes the pretty good thriller or the size of the lab, which is just awesome.

Just one of the best movies ever made besides. So I was like, we've got that. A rare example of a film that deserved it winning this year. It's going to be the power of the dog this year. It's just going to be, I look, John Campion. I mean, I don't think you're wrong. It's the best Jane Campion movie, since the piano.

Of course it is. I mean, probably a better movie than a piano. If we're being honest book, she makes art house films, no member of the public. I guarantee you now, any member of the public who steamed the out of verts for the power of the dog now branded with nominated for 12 pick 12 academy or any member of the public by and large is going, who has tried to watch the power of the dog will have started it.

Seeing the runtime gone through five to 10 minutes of it, thought to themselves nothing's happened yet. And then just turn off, or maybe they watched it in six chunks late. Maybe they pulled an Irishman and just watched it in six shots, which feels kind of reaffirmed once. And for all that, the Irishman really was better off as a streaming series that a movie into that.

Yeah.

And guess you still not, can the academy bring themselves the world best director the second consecutive year?

Yeah, that was astounded me. I was flabbergasted to discover that th th Jane Campion was the first woman to be nominated twice to get. That's got to be bullshit. That's got to be like, um, I'm sure.

Kathryn Bigelow, like God to be Kathryn Bigelow shut. No, not half. Not Kathryn Bigelow. Devastating. I always just nevermind. Okay. Fair enough. Um, yeah. So who knew that was a thing. And then again, as, as we seem to keep discovering the academy awards, not exactly as trailblazing as they, as they should be in some regards.

I mean, look at Chloe Zhao last year was the second female director to win an Oscar that is, and they were really patting themselves on the back for that. He's thinking, yeah, that's, that's all well and good, you know? Yay. We, we gave a, uh, a best at best director Oscar to the second time we're progressing.

You're like, you know, that progressive you've been alive, but 90 years before you do it the second time, you know what I mean? Like, yeah. Yeah. It's one of those things where it would, it would be like, imagine, imagine you played basketball one. Right. And then you played it again 90 years late. So you wouldn't describe yourself as a basketball player.

You describe yourself as a bad grabbing piece of shit if we're being honest, but he's

that? Yeah, no, I agree. And I, you know, I think systemically, I think the problem is that women and in fact, just anyone, that's not a white man, a white, straight man. They have to, in order to even get considered for a nomination, let alone, when they have to make something.

Sensational. And I think, you know, they have to do so much more to break that.

I mean, you you're preaching to the choir. Army hammer got closest to closest when Oscar closest, when Oscar sooner than spike Lee did. I mean, let's never, ever forget that army hammer. I mean, Jesus Armie hammer, which when you consider where Armie hammer is now, it's just incredible.

But yeah, I mean, Louis, Louis C K would have been an academy award nominee where it not for me to buy now, he, I mean, he would have been an academy award winner by it cause they were gearing him up to be, he was a. You know what I mean? Um, yeah, it takes an actual scandal to get any one of the white persuasion in so much as we classify Louis C K is, and you can find he's Jewish.

And then Louis CK is which as we pass by you each take it as a standard Caucasian man of the industry. It took a scandal to stop that one, but spike Lee, I mean, really, I always just look at the cinema, the cinematic back catalog of spike Lee and think Jesus Christ. And then you look at clothes, look at, oh, he's our wedding.

I asked you the second woman in 90 odd years. Wow. You look, this is, yes, this is progression. But progression that long after the fact might as well not be considered progression.

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And you know that they're still there. They consider themselves progressive, but they're still only giving 10% of their best director, Oscars to women and probably a small percentage of their nominations.

Can we, can we just address that? Let's lay the blame for that one. Exactly where it deservedly needs to go, which is again, back at the studios. This is back at Mr. Beers. They say is, this is any white man can direct any white guy in his, you follow me on follow me on this template because I'll start to paint you some examples when I'm done, but give me a white guy in his late twenties, early thirties does a moderate sized, uh, indie hits that is maybe, maybe goes down while at a festival.

No one ever actually sees it, but he then gets a low budget, maybe mid tier studio film. Let's call it five mill for a studio and it gets decent critical buzz. Again, nobody sees it, but because it got that bus, the studio more or less writes that off, they then reward him by giving him $150 million to $200 million studio, movie sequel, usually with a brand IP attached.

To do. And even if that arm's who cares, he's the anointed one. Now he's a blockbuster director. And notice I use the word. He, you have exact has to be a heat. This never happens to women. What happens to right? Let, let's get some names out at that particular hat. Shall we let's talk about JJ Abrams. Let's talk about Ryan.

You know, these are directors and the best part is the ones who actually do turn out interesting movies. When they get to the, uh, the blockbuster stage. It's amazing how quickly the failures could see them get shit canned then, because there's a very specific reason that JJ Abrams is the direction of Skywalker.

There's a very specific reason that Ryan, Johnson's not going to get to do his star wars sequel trilogy. There is a reason the game of Thrones guys get to aren't going to do star wars and that's because you know, the first paleo they're out the door. Again, unless they get that. If they get that big branded IP, they actually get a lot of shot.

If Colin Trevorrow had gotten to do riser Skywalker, he would not have mattered how bad it was. He would have been blacklisted forever. And, you know, he went from his low budget thing to Jurassic world to then go off, to make the book of Henry, which was terrible, which then got him kicked off a style wars to then go back and do Jurassic world too.

So these guys just fail upwards. Now it doesn't happen to black directors that doesn't happen to Asian directors are named Don destined Daniel Craton because his movies seemed to just get progressively worse, but to be fat chunky made by a conveyor belt factory, admittedly is pretty good, but how look, how many crap movies Daniel Destin Kremlin got to, to churn out, but he, for some reason, kind of got swept into that machine and you'll be a blockbuster director forever.

Now, very few times, do you see a director of color or a woman or non binary, anything like that? Very, very rare. Do you see an open coming, a director who is not a white man, get that leap, that propel upwards, at which point it does not matter instantly. It does not matter how bad what they turn out is. And you look at how much shit Patty Jenkins took the wonder woman, 84, Chloe Zhao

for turtle.

Yeah, I can't, I can't agree more. Yeah, it's it just it's, it's the embedded, um, inequality. That's still rampant in Hollywood. Um, and we're, we're still a long way from, from correcting that and balancing the scales, unfortunately. And the Oscars are, unfortunately also we're still a long way from that. No matter how much they profess to be the champions of, um, diversity and, and fair representation.

They're not spoiler alert. They're not. Uh, um, so we've got three more questions. Let's, let's do quick fire, get through these questions and then I'm going to get your final few predictions for this year. So if your life was turned into. Which categories of the Oscars, would it be most likely nominate?

Well, first of all, it wouldn't get nominated for an art for an Oscar.

I mean the erotic thriller genre is dead and I'm kidding. You wish, wish fulfillment. We all, I mean, don't get wrong. I I'm I'm 38. So I still wish my life was a Zalman king movie. Of course. And if you don't know, who's king is look up the works of the Zalman king and you prepare yourself for some absolute cinematic delight.

You think, you think the company started on the X-Files knew he did not. Um, not for the red shoe fans out there. I didn't feel a comedy, probably a comedy if I was, if I was not, and this is why I'd still wouldn't get nominated for an Oscar because comedies don't generally get nominated for Oscars, but I, in my life, they're a comedy orders or absurdist comment, a tragicomedy,

perhaps.

Fair enough. What is it? Oscar's that you remember

watching? I remember this because it was when Nicholas cage, when the Oscars, I really started getting into film when I was, when I was about 10, was when I started really getting into a, to film, like on a, on a series, like, you know, getting to know my directors or to theory and things like that was now.

I was about 10. I think I was, I think I was. Uh, she only had been 11 when cage won the Oscar for leaving Las Vegas. And I remember cause I remember that Nicholas cage speech, and I remember it being, you know, it's actually started on YouTube. It's quite a good speech. And I remember it made me actually go and watch, oh actually, no, I had already watched leaving Las Vegas.

I lived in Cuba at the time where there was no such thing as copyright law. So there was a VHS shop on every street corner. They just sold like copied VHS tapes and uh, and these costs next to nothing. So you just come home and stack a new felons. And I saw some, I think I watched leaving Las Vegas and Stargate on the same night.

And it was a couple of weeks before that. I remember that year. I remember that cage, which I remember thinking about all the cages that had been out around that time. And how specifically terrible he had been in some of them I'm thinking, wow, even this guy can win an Oscar.

Yeah, fair enough. Um, yeah, Nicholas cage style. Let's let's stop again. How incredible human being he is. And every time that his name gets mentioned on this podcast, I always have to plug the video on YouTube called Nicholas cage, losing his share, which is five minutes of a compilation of every single time in any movie that he has gone

mental.

Okay. First of all, I can't let you, I can't let you lay the claims and it goes to page, is it the first, I think it was the first hundred and 50 episodes and maybe the first hundred and 50 or 200 episodes of off screen, uh, always ended with, we used to do a, uh, you know, an hour podcast, extra section on every podcast.

So we had the radio ad and then we had the actual, the films that we couldn't cram it. And we used to stick in podcast extras after the. And because we didn't want to have to come up with another way to sign off every time we would say, you know, that's been it for case that's been it for van. Here it is.

And we need this from dailies. We need this from the daily show. Admittedly, uh, here it is your moment of cage, or we would just play a random audio clip of Nicholas cage and sign off. And I think that honestly, one of the things I'm most impressed about in my entire career is that we made it to, I think it was 200, might have been 200.

I think we made it to 200 without ever repeating any of them. And the only time anyone ever commented on there was about, uh, maybe about a hundred and fifty, a hundred seventy five in, we played the entire 23 minute long clip of Nicholas cage, reading the Raven by ed gallon, which is just if you've ever seen man on the moon, the movie man on the moon in which, uh, Jim Carrey plays and Councilman and recreate star faith.

That infamous moment, which Andy, Calvin. Uh, responded to his hackers or the standup show by reading the great Gatsby. And that would be his go-to to deal with every time. So hackle, if we would just read the great Gatsby ad nauseum, uh, Nicholas cage just does this with the Raven and he takes it completely seriously.

He is invested like when Nicholas cage is reading Edgar Allen, Poe's the Raven, as you would absolutely imagine he is living.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, no, to anyone. Uh, I think there's your plug for off screen anyways, a checkout screen or wherever you get your podcasts. It's a great, a great podcast with yourself and, uh, Rebecca.

Perfect. I listened to it myself. If you like films. I

did not know you listened to actually is actually cause actually true. Do you actually

listen occasionally? Yeah,

not, I thought I was just one of those like bullshit things you say to your friends. Well, thank you. That's

fine. I did not, not every week.

Not every week, but yeah,

I guess I get weird ones actually. You know, when you, when you encountered, you have to have this with any of your shows, when friends tell you, like they listened to it at weird times, like my, uh, like my best friend, um, I think once told me, oh, I wanna listen to it on Sundays when I do my ironing really strange.

I think like he specifically listens while he builds his yeah. Okay, let's try another one said, um, oh, I listened to, oh, that was good. Another one said, oh, Sunday next. When I take my bath and list on it, but that's not something I needed to know. Thank you. Yeah.

I think that the, the thing that I find, um, I guess a little bit creepy is that I know my wife definitely doesn't listen to the podcast.

And a lot of my family don't know what a podcast is. Um, I, I occasionally get this little spike in, listens from, um, my area, the area that I'll get in and bearing in mind, it's about a two mile radius. And I'm thinking probably when I know it's definitely someone, those,

you know what it is, you know, what is your mom telling her friend?

I guess I would leave. You don't look as our limbs do he's he's doing this. Fuck a radio thing. We put it on your phone. You should have it as a parish. It's called this, that supposed to be. That's what? It's got a tablet, a mom's a spare me, not my mom, but my mind was just spreading the word. Uh, you know, I don't think my mom has house.

Possibly. Yeah. I still have to explain on a regular basis to all of my family what a podcast is. Um, so

there we are. I just go with specific radio. That's what it is. Yeah.

I just, I just tell him it's radio. You can listen on the internet, you know, keep it simple, but right. Final question to sign off this Oscar special.

Uh, what is your ultimate Oscar's moment of all

time? Oh, I mean, it's, it's hard to top, uh, uh, the, uh, the Mo Moonlight Lala land thing in terms of just, she had dumb ass Surrey. Um, Ooh. I mean the king of the world, James Cameron king of the world. I, in that for me, because that was an example. When, when Titanic was around Titanic clear in the Oscars, when it did was more of a throwback statement than I think anyone gives me credit for Titanic as a film.

It was interesting in that it did take us back to a cherished time clearly in the life of James Cameron, which was the time of, you know, a sixties, Hollywood, epic on a disaster movie, like that transition point between films like Ben Hur and the fifties and, and your Spartacus into then the disaster movies of the sixties and seventies and maybe early eighties.

And so tonic, cause I thought was a fascinating confluence of those, those periods of Hollywood history, but in terms of how it was received by the academy and the praise that got heaped upon it, how it went down with audiences, how it's culturally remembered. It has more in common with the Cleopatra era, with the Ben Hur era, with the great Hollywood epics than for instance the disaster.

So that half of it tends to overshadow. It's a popcorn movie that the academy simply rubber stamp. So there's, there are examples of this. The Lord of the rings for instance, is an example of a franchise that was allowed to was, was, was legitimized, was given this academic legitimacy. And there are very, very few franchises that do that.

Now we're going to make that comment about Marvel will never win a best pitcher because of that reason, no matter it can be the biggest game in town, but it won't get legitimize. They won't legitimize it. They, they made that statement of the very first star wars. We know Woody Allen's legitimate, Annie hall can be legitimized and Woody Allen could be legitimized.

Star wars cannot. That was: 1977

Don't forget most expensive movie of all time, three and a quarter hours alone, production disaster. This will ruin the studio. It's going to tank, it's going to sink. You know, you know, those were, those were the predictions with Titanic. And then that first trailer came out and to be fair in the fresh, there was sort of tittering around it initially.

But then when the movie drops. It was like, it was a cult because we still had a mono culture back then as well. Yeah. Everybody watched the same thing back then. You know what I mean? 97, if there was a big movie out, everyone saw it because there weren't three big movies out on Friday and you didn't have to appeal to three different audiences.

On a Friday, you didn't have 300 channels, two people for 300 different audiences. It didn't work that way when Titanic was a thing. So you got more of a sense of how it stood in the cultural marketplace because that cultural marketplace was a lot narrower. You wouldn't notice, we don't notice these things quite as much now how the influence of something is of much more frivolous, a viral load for it.

There's a lot more throwaway and occurrence. Now, how movies are perceived. Are you, I mean, There are certain takeaways. The, the cultural influence of Encanto may, well, for instance, PR pro pallets to best picture that's animated feature, sorry, uh, this year, but that was probably gonna happen anyway, because it's the defacto Disney one of the year.

I don't know if you've noticed this, but there's always half of the best animated feature categories, always Disney. That's a guarantee. So they've always got 50% chance of walking home with that Oscar anyway, but Titanic and Cameron just hold the bar statue and saying, I'm the king of the world. You know, God damn.

He really was so much so that he literally got to write his own ticket forever and then spent the rest of his life. So well to date plumbing, ocean wreckage, and filming dances with Smurfs. It's a very nice equals to it that I don't think we need Jim. We don't need them. Can we please, please get you back to doing something original.

Go go and do an action movie again, please. We need to know the true lies. The world needs a true lies more than ever now.

Yeah. If you listen, James Cameron put down those avatar sequels and, uh, uh, make something else for five. I think there's, I think they'd bumped it up to five. Now that Disney have taken over it, they need to, I need to get that sort of 40 odd billion back then.

Apparently

if I, this type that going on the wash, I'm like, yeah, what a shock, Jim. Cameron's taking us under underwater. Yay. Anyone else think this one was a long time coming?

Yeah, it feels like, um, pardon the pun. But the ship has sailed in terms of, you know, anything they could do to really kind of blow our minds at this point, because it's been 13 years in the making, but I guess we'll wait and see, but that, that concludes our Oscar special.

Uh, if you care enough to watch the ceremony you can do on now TV, if you're in England or just on regular ABC, if you're, if you're in America or somewhere illegal, if you're anywhere else, but van, before we sign off, uh, do remind us where we can hear you reach a staff and connect.

Oh, what can you, oh, I I'm all over the map.

So, uh, mean, let me see if I'm trying to do this, and I've been trying to do this in chronological order for you. So typically it's, I'm in the morning star online on Thursdays in print on Friday, he's doing 50% of that. I do half of that film reviews with Maria Duarte. Um, I have the offscreen show with, uh, with backs.

Um, currently being guest hosted by our mutual friends are feeling she's she's guest guest hosting this week, filling in for backs while she's doing NFT stuff at mobile world conference. I think it's called, um, you can find it on a podcast platforms, Sam on Fridays, and I think. Five 40 in the afternoon on Fridays, I do BBC Oxford drive time.

I do that film reviews with Adam Ball, which is always a laugh. We, we have so much fun and producer Stuart on that. He just indulges me some absolute insanity. Last week. They allowed me to tell the British public this week, weekend, they should go dogging with Channing Tatum and they let me get away with that, which I thought was absolutely terrific.

And then of course last, certainly by no means least Friday mornings, very early Friday mornings. I absolutely felt up in chronological order of suddenly. Um, please believe that, uh, I think it's about 4, 4 30 on a Friday morning. Cause we, we prerecorded recorded different times. I have the, uh, the Freeview picks for the next three days with Paul Ross on, on talks or as part of, uh, overnight Paul Ross.

And oh my God, if you want to learn. Fascinating random things about movies. And this is me saying this, just, just listen to Paul Ross in general, because he slips things in he's one of the most incredible people talk from like, I, I will tell whoever will listen about, I will. I will, honestly, I will sing the praises of Paul Ross as a, as a film mind forever.

Um, the wrong Ross got the film program. That's that's all I'm going say the wrong brother got the film in my pink. Paul Ross is just, he knows things about obscure westerns, French art house dramas from the sixties, all sorts. And just honestly, he can, I I'm. One of my dreams is to have some kind of throwback show or some retro cinema, some histologists, inductions, and Marsha with Paul Ross, because it would be one of the fascinating gigs you could ever have.

So that my, my, my endorsement for Paul Ross right there missing.

Yeah. And, uh, van, thank you very much for being on the show today. It's been great, kind of reminiscent a bit guy and talking about the Oscars, which is something I don't get a chance to do very often. So thanks for indulging me.

It'd be my, my is brushy have Oscar night with you on if I ever, if I'm ever actually in a position where I have like an empty co-host slot on an Oscar night, I would definitely get your, they never, whenever it's benefited me on the backs, they never really give us a sign.

And usually it ends badly, um, you know, th this certain cause cause Osceola. Like, you know, it's like high energy, very demanding night if you're a film critic. So it takes a certain kind of person to work with. Like, you need someone that you can find like very casual and easy conversation with it. Can't be difficult.

And that's, these are, you'd be very good to spend an Oscar night with, I think.

Thank you very much. I know I'm going to hold you to that. Especially if it comes with a paycheck,

if it ain't a paycheck, it ain't worth bothering.

Absolutely. Well, thank you very much and I will get you back for a proper episode.

So.

That will be my genuine pleasure about it. You call me up anytime. That's

it. For this episode of the Friday film club, I do hope you enjoyed it. And of course you can listen back to all previous episodes, wherever you get your podcasts. And remember as well to connect with us on Twitter and Instagram at the Frye film club, we would of course, post links to all of our guests info in the show notes.

So look out for that as well. Thanks for listening. .