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Join hosts Amy Thomasson and Steve Buja as they take a look back at the very small number of films to have been named the Academy Awards' Best Picture and ask the important question: did it deserve to win? We'll take a look at the other contenders, the politics of awards season, the world events that shaped the year, and of course, reviewing the big winner and how it has withstood the test of time. Hopefully while having a spirited conversation that will, in some cases, be more entertaining ...
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We say farewell with a look back at one of the finest works ever produced, Charlie Chaplin's City Lights (1931), a film that is sure to make you fall in love all over again. Steve tears up, Amy laughs and we all stare in awe at how well this little film where no words are ever said can still hold up to this day. Not to spoil anything, but this movi…
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All aboard to ride that (Czech New) wave with a look at the Best Foreign Language film of 1967, Closely Watched Trains. This episode, Amy and Steve reveal some sordid histories of theirs, Steve admits to some "funny" feelings during a particular scene and the two discuss how boys and girls' "coming of age" narratives are very different (and awfully…
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Amy and Steve get captured and thrown in the brig with our Christmas gift to ourselves: Billy Wilder's Stalag 17. A film with a special place in Amy's heart! We discuss the great William Holden (in his only Oscar winning role...and was it actually for something else?) and Steve realizes that yes, there is such a thing as "too much comedy" in an oth…
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Are you listening closely? This week, as part of our all request Christmas Giftathon, we take a very close look back at the ultimate superhero showdown: Batman vs Wolverine, The Prestige (2006), a film that Steve simply cannot stop watching. And yes, don't worry folks, it is superior to The Illusionist in every single way. But what makes this Chris…
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A dominating narcissist destroys everyone around him in an attempt at immortality, and also there's a vampire! Hey-o! As part of the Christmas Gift month of requests, Amy (or should I say, Herr Direktor?) and Steve take a look back at the underloved 2000 film, Shadow of the Vampire. What is it about art as destruction that we find so compelling? An…
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We begin our Christmas Gift month with a trip to America...through the eyes of those who came here. Avalon is little remembered these days but as Amy and Steve both discover, it is both a little timeless and also very timely. We thrill over the much underappreciated Armin Mueller-Stahl and marvel at watching America as only immigrants can. And when…
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Whether it's 1951, 1971 or 2018, there are some things that exist outside of time. Anarene may not be real but there are towns like it all over the country. Amy and Steve look at how the more things change, the more they stay the same in Peter Bogdanovich's transcendent film, The Last Picture Show. Is it a post-apocalyptic film? It sure starts that…
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We mourn the passing of screenwriter William Goldman this week with a look back at the beloved fantasy, The Princess Bride. A film that was not that well known in its day, but has since become a cultural favorite. Joining Amy and Steve to talk fencing, fighting and true love is guest co-host Brian Hartz who is back to drop trivia bombs and love of …
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In honor of the 100th anniversary since the end of World War I, Amy and Steve look back at the 3rd Academy Award winner, All Quiet On The Western Front, a film that time has hardly touched...and we wonder if that's a good or bad thing. We have seen all it has done before; but put yourself in the shoes of someone back then, imagine how this modern w…
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The most important election in our lifetimes has just passed us (I hope we are still standing) and so what better way to celebrate democracy and America than with that most American of all films, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Directed by an immigrant, by the way! Wait...you mean this film didn't win Best Picture?!? How could that be? Well...we get …
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In honor of Dia de los Muertos, Amy and Steve look back on last year's Best Animated Feature winner, Coco. While we normally ask how the film has aged, we instead ask how we think the film will be received in the future. Steve once again vents his annoyance (however unfounded) at this song winning over a different, more Hugh Jackman-y number. He al…
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No, it's not a dream, this is really happening. Amy and Steve are once again returning to the banner year of 1968 to discuss another genre film that broke boundaries and that we think may have deserved a Best Picture nom, Rosemary's Baby. A warning: we do discuss director Roman Polanski, criminal and briefly get into what he did. However, we also m…
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Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the bathroom...Hitchcock takes even that sanctuary away from us. Join Amy and Steve as they discuss one of the most influential films in history, Hitchcock's Psycho. How influential? It birthed the slasher and while it wasn't prescient, it sure informed us what was to come in the 1960s. And it is mo…
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Heeeeeere's...OscarWatch! We begin our October celebration of Shoulda Beens with a look at Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, a film that few liked when it was released but many came around on as the years went by. What is it about this movie that inspires revision and, as it turns out, an obsessive - nay, rabid - cult of fans? Joining Amy and Steve is…
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Baa Ram Ewe! Baa Ram Ewe! Baa Ram Ewe...really should listen to our hosts discuss the magical and adorable Best Picture nominee, 1995's Babe. The second half of our George Miller double feature explores the writer/director's central theme of flying your own flag, whether that's dancing, not being sexual chattel or wanting to be a sheep-pig. Steve g…
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Tap along if you feel like a penguin without a song...Amy and Steve tackle the George Miller directed tale of a lone figure wandering a barren wasteland in a quasi-ecological story while fighting the forces of the status quo. Yes, it is Happy Feet! (Why? What else could it be?) The 2006 Best Animated Feature is not without its critics, but as we le…
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Hop on the back of this moving truck and let's play the ivory keys with a look at vintage Nicholson and his nominated role, Five Easy Pieces. Wherein we ask: why do we love watching Nicholson self destruct? And what is the film trying to say about the human - specifically the male - experience? Some people just like to run, I suppose. Steve admires…
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We pay tribute to the one and only Burt Reynolds with a look back at his one and only Oscar nomination: PTA's landmark Boogie Nights, a movie so good it obviously wasn't nominated for Best Picture. Joining our intrepid duo this week once again is Shahir Daud of The Only Podcast About Movies, who brings his professorial swagger and learns us a thing…
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To honor the passing of Broadway giant and screenwriter Neil Simon, who died recently at the age of 91, our hosts fall in love with his 1977 romcom, The Goodbye Girl. What more do you need than a script as punchy and witty as this? At long last, a worthy comedy deserving of Best Picture...that happened to be released when one of cinema's greatest c…
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We seize the day with another inspiring, rousing podcast about the 1989 Best Picture nominee, Dead Poets Society. The movie that all taught us a little Latin and reminded a generation of who that Whitman guy was. How has the film held up? And is it better subtitled 'See! Rich White Guys Have Problems, Too!' Plus, we figure out just what seizing the…
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There's acting. There's good acting. And then there's Daniel Day Lewis, a man so talented he only needs one limb to wow you in his first of three Best Actor winning films, My Left Foot. A fine film elevated by a great performance...and we don't always mean Mr. Day Lewis, either, for Best Supporting Actress winner Brenda Fricker is every bit his equ…
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It's hot out there, so what better way to pass the time than with a look back at a snub so great we're still talking about it nearly thirty years later? Joining us for our discussion is special guest Steven van Patten. He helps us break down the music, the culture, the incredible cast, the heat, anything and everything - and yet we leave so much un…
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The film world has been agog at the recently announced changes to the Academy Awards format. Hosts Amy and Steve break down the new rules, regulations, try to figure out why (hint: money & millennials) and generally try to keep their cool while not breaking their computers. Can we live in a world with a Best Picture and a Best Popular Picture? We'l…
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We come to it at last: 1989, one of the greatest years in film. Seriously, look up all the movies that came out and tell me that's not a stacked deck? And yet...Driving Miss Daisy has been maligned since the very moment it won the Academy Award for Best Picture nearly thirty years ago. Is the world right to condemn this movie? Amy and Steve, your v…
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Our hosts look at the beautiful side of ugly, and the ugliness in the beautiful with a conversation about the 2013 Best Foreign Language film, The Great Beauty. Sure, we all wanted to be artists when we grew up, but would we all end up as insufferable as everyone in this movie? Amy and Steve are split on this one and one is very, very passionate ab…
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Hoo boy, it is hot out! How better to spend a sweltering summer day than holed up inside a bank after a robbery goes spectacularly wrong? Amy and Steve discuss the classic 1975 crime caper, Dog Day Afternoon. But first, they have to get their love of Sydney Lumet out there in the open; few are better, or more unloved these days. We lament the passi…
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America! F--- Yeah! concludes this week. What can possibly be more American than unfettered, naked capitalism? So grab a seat - I hope you paid - because you're going to sell us a pen, it's Leo. It's Marty. It's The Wolf of Wall Street. But can you make a movie about such deplorable people and not start to sympathize with the characters? And how is…
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Don your best zoot suits. Glue on that toupee and fire up the science oven, it's our lookback at that ode to 70s excess, American Hustle. The latest entry in the Amy T. Top 100, the film has been a long time coming on this podcast. But how will our hosts respond to each other's opinions? The answer may shock you! We delve into the razzle dazzle of …
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Happy Fourth of July! We continue our 'America! F---, Yeah!' series with a look back at the most American president ever, Steven Spielberg's 2012 Best Picture nominee, Lincoln. Let's pour a toast out to all of those poor bastards who were nominated for Best Actor alongside Daniel Day Lewis, though as we will quickly realize, our hosts are far from …
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Our two very white hosts discuss a topic that they are absolutely experts in, Steve McQueen's 2013 Best Picture winning film, 12 Years A Slave. The latest entry in our VERY IMPORTANT FILM series. As unflinching and uncomfortable an experience as one may have at the theater, the movie is absolutely designed to make you squirm. Not for its brutality,…
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Pull up a seat and get ready for a whole lot of not kissing! Amy and Steve go back to the days before Netflix, when the movies were too big for any one screen to fill, to celebrate the 1989 Best Foreign Language Film, Cinema Paradiso. A love story for the ages...not between man and woman, but between man and the movies. Does its quaint, rosy colore…
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HAPPY 100 EPISODES! To celebrate this illustrious milestone, we are throwing ourselves an Incredi-ball and there's only one film to do that with: 2004's Best Animated Feature winner, The Incredibles. Just in time for the long overdue sequel, Amy and Steve take a look back and see just how incredible this film is...or has a decade of superhero glut …
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We feel the bitter cold on this, our third journey with David Lean as he takes us to the Russian Revolution with his sumptuous adaptation of Doctor Zhivago. Amy and Steve ponder why the titular actor is not, in fact, the first billed, try to dissect Russian history is about two minutes - to varying degrees of success - and come to the conclusion th…
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Terrence Malick's sumptuous meditation on combat asks many questions, and Amy and Steve are here to answer them as best we can with this look at (yet another) 1998 Best Picture nominee, The Thin Red Line. Our hosts bunker down and attack the hill of storytelling and what moments matter and are required in your film. What is the strength in asking a…
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Just in time for summer, Amy and Steve grab the biggest boat we can find and set sail for shark infested waters with a look back at Steven Spielberg's gamechanging film, Jaws (1975. The old adage 'less is more' has never been truer than with the iconic shark, who is still terrifying swimmers 40 years later. More than a sharkfest, the film works bec…
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Join hosts Amy & Steve, along with special guest Brian Hartz, as they celebrate the 50th anniversary of Stanley Kubrick's ultimate trip, 2001: A Space Odyssey. A film so influential in cinema that, of course, it was nominated for Best Picture...right? Wrong! So, in honor of this momentous occasion, we introduce a new category of film: Shoulda Been …
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Special guest Shahir Daud of The Only Podcast About Movies joins in for a discussion at what the great critic Pauline Kael said was "the greatest movie of all time", Vittorio de Sica's Bicycle Thieves. Or is it The Bicycle Thief? By whatever name you call it, the influential Italian neorealist film provokes a deep discussion on "poverty tourism", t…
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The duo hitches up the wagon and heads west for greener pastures with a look back at the 1931 Best Picture winner, Cimarron. A movie very much of its time, the film straddles the line between progress and "the way things were" both in terms of story, and in how famed silent actor Richard Dix handles a speaking role. Hint: there is no line that cann…
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In honor of the passing of legendary director Milos Forman, Amy and Steve are looking back at one of his most iconic films, the 1975 Best Picture winner, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Starring the one and only Jack Nicholson, the hosts debate if Jack ever actually acts; whether Louise Fletcher deserved that Best Lead Actress Oscar she so famousl…
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We finish our stay in 2010 with our last ReConsideration, Darren Aronofsky's descent into madness: Black Swan, wherein Natalie Portman slowly goes insane trying to be perfect. What does Aronofsky think of art and artists? We think something rather untenable, but who better to look at obsession than the most obsessive director currently working? Of …
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We continue our descent into 2010 with a look at David Fincher's The Social Network, a movie that makes us go 'Oh yeah, all this stuff involving Zuckerberg totally makes sense!' Though a Fincher film, Amy and Steve talk at length about the film's writer, the legendary Aaron Sorkin and the good - and bad - that often comes with him. Is it so hard to…
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This week, we look at the harsh morality tale, In A Better World which went home with the Oscar for Best Foreign Language film over some considerable competition. Parents beware, there are children in danger in this one. A prescient film about the nature of violence in society in general and young men in particular, Amy and Steve discuss whole and …
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We've got a friend! Original co-host Alex Riviello returns to discuss the ins and outs of 2010's Best Animated Film winner, Toy Story 3. Haven't we seen this one before? Doesn't it bear an awful resemblance to its predecessor? But as Steve notes, what can you expect from the guy who just copy and pasted Episode IV? Plus, we discuss the utter darkne…
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Our first stop in 2010 takes us to the royal drama of a man searching for not only his voice, but the courage to take on the approaching storm. The King's Speech brought everyone's favorite Mr. Darcy his Oscar glory and who knew listening to him curse a blue streak could be so much fun? Amy and Steve discuss the ins and outs of this acting tour de …
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A new segment where Amy and Steve look back at notable Foreign Language films that came up short at the Oscars. For the debut, we could think of none better than (recently en-goldened) Guillermo del Toro's dark fantasy drama, Pan's Labyrinth. Considered GdT's Spanish masterpiece, the film uses the 'young child escapes reality into a fantasy land' t…
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We would like to remind everyone that we are big, it's the podcasts that got small. Continuing our look at the year 1950, we set our sights on Billy Wilder's timeless time of obsession and faded glory, the one and only, Sunset Boulevard. A Hollywood film about Hollywood unlike any other. Amy and Steve discuss - at length - the beauty of the acting,…
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We add three more films to the roster here at OscarWatch: The Shape of Water, A Fantastic Woman and Coco. In this special, no muss, no fuss edition of the podcast, Amy and Steve recap the 90th Annual Academy Awards, a show that was long in time and had many things a long time coming. The big winner was del Toro, but there were so many things to be …
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