Show Notes
On this week’s episode, I’m joined by Katey Rich and Christopher Rosen of The Ankler to preview the awards season and give you tips on what to check out (spoiler: Hamnet’s gonna be a big one this year) and discuss the exquisite art of Oscar prognostication. (If you enjoy this episode, make sure to check out The Ankler’s Prestige Junkie newsletter and show.) For the record, you can see my nomination guesses here at the Ankler Pundits site.
One of the things we delve into is the weird position Oscar pundits find themselves in, as they are torn between portraying the world as it is and trying to subtly change things to reshape the world in their image, as the predictions themselves have been known to shape the outcome of races. And that’s why I am staking a claim here: Delroy Lindo deserves a god-dang Oscar nomination for his work in Sinners.
Look, don’t get me wrong: Lindo has deserved Oscar gold for some time. He absolutely deserved it for his work in Da Five Bloods, for instance. But I celebrate the man’s entire body of work. I would give him a lifetime achievement award simply for his pronunciation of “sesame cake” in Congo. The man’s a damn legend and it’s about time the Academy gave him his due.
But he especially deserves it for the work he does in Sinners, a movie that seems lined up to snag a whole boatload of Oscar nominations, including best picture. Yes, yes: Michael B. Jordan’s dual performance as Smoke and Stack is the showcase of the film. But Lindo’s turn as Delta Slim embodies the soul of the movie; he is the embodiment of the life of a musician, of a black musician, in the American South at a time when simply being black could mark you for death. And he’s just funny as hell in the role, delivering these slightly off-kilter line reads that no one else could have pulled off.
Give the man his Oscar gold already! At the very least, give him the nomination. The people demand it! Leave your favorite Lindo performance in the comments, if you would. I’d like to prove that this man deserves his plaudits.
More from The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood
On this week’s episode, I’m rejoined by Geoff Edgers of the Washington Post to discuss The Tale of Norm Macdonald and prod Geoff about his forthcoming* book on the great comedian who sadly died in 2021. Geoff wrote one of the defining profiles of Macdonald in 2016 for the Washington Post and appears, briefly, in the new Netflix documentary. (You’ll see him; he’s the one being served a sandwich by Norm’s mom.) But he does not appear as a talking head, as this documentary has no talking heads: It’s a compilation of clips with some voiceover narration provided by Norm himself from the grave! (Or, possibly, the audiobook of his novelistic memoir, Based on a Memoir: Not a True Story.) *In 2028! Very forth. But Geoff’s book on The Police (the band, not the law enforcement) comes out in March of next year. I bet he’ll come back on the show if you ask real nice! He talked to all three members; it’s a really good book, I’m reading it now.
I’m rejoined this week by Matt Roller, the showrunner of Netflix’s Haunted Hotel, to discuss the second season of his hit animated show. We talked about the difficulties of getting a new season done in just one year, how the fandom has reacted to the show (and why he tries to avoid letting the fanfic influence his work), and whether or not season three is on the way. If you haven’t watched Haunted Hotel and are a fan of similar shows like Bob’s Burgers or Futurama, you should really check it out. And if you enjoyed this episode, I hope you share it with a friend!
On this week’s episode, I’m rejoined by Katey Rich and Christopher Rosen, the Prestige Junkies over at The Ankler, to talk about the early days of the Oscar campaign. It’s finally heating up now that we’re hitting awards season and the prestige pictures are making their debuts; you can find our early preferred nominees at the Ankler Pundits landing page. But we cover a ton of ground in this episode, including how early favorites like The Odyssey will hold up, why La Bola Negra may well be Netflix’s best chance for a Best Picture trophy, and whether or not Inde Navarette of Obsession fame has a shot at a nomination. Plus: Wild Horse Nine! You Can See Everything! Fjord! So much to discuss, such little time. But we crammed a lot in for you. Leave your favorites of the year so far in the comments below!
On this week’s episode, I’m rejoined by Sean McNulty of The Ankler’s excellent morning newsletter, The Wakeup, to discuss some of the big stories in the news. We start with the Paramount-Skydance/Warner Bros. deal going through its final phases before approval, before heading into some discussion of the federal film tax credits (17:10), and then wrapping up with a discussion of the state of sports rights and plateauing audience numbers there (29:30).
On this week’s episode, I’m joined by V for Vendetta director James McTeigue, whose film is returning to theaters on the first and fifth of November (“Remember, remember!”) via Saga Arts and Fathom Entertainment. We had a really interesting discussion both about the making of the film (I had no idea Hugo Weaving replaced another actor you may well know several weeks into production) and its continued relevance. What was intended as a metaphor for the War on Terror now holds up pretty well in our current age—arguably, much better, given the state of things now compared to then.