At Work in America – 2022 Oscars Preview and Predictions Show

At Work in America – 2022 Oscars Preview and Predictions Show

Hosts: Steve Boese, Trish McFarlane

This episode of the HR Happy Hour is brought to you by Paychex, one of the leading providers of HR, payroll, retirement, and software solutions for businesses of all sizes. The COVID-19 pandemic has completely changed how many people work, leaving millions of job seekers reevaluating their priorities and making it vital for employers to find new ways to keep them supported and engaged. That’s why Paychex surveyed more than 600 HR leaders and more than 2,000 employees at different-sized businesses across the U.S. to find out what employers are getting wrong when it comes to the needs of their workforce. What they found was a large discrepancy between what employees want, and what employers think they want, when it comes to their organizations. For a look at why employees say they’re leaving their current companies, and what you should be thinking about in order to attract and retain talent, download their findings here

This week on the HR Happy Hour Show, Steve and Trish return with their Annual Academy Awards Preview and Predictions Show. We will break down all the important Oscar categories – Best Picture, Best Director, Best Leading and Supporting Actor and Actress, Best Documentary and share some commentary, opinions, and predictions on who will walk away with the statues on Sunday night.

Thank you, for joining us today!  Remember to subscribe to the HR Happy Hour wherever you get your podcasts.

Transcript follows:

Announcer 0:11
Welcome to At Work in America sponsored by Paychex. We welcome a wide and exceptionally impressive array of guests, business leaders, HR leaders, academics, practitioners, consultants and authors to talk about the most timely, relevant and challenging issues that are influencing the workplace today. At Work in America digs in behind the headlines and trends to the stories of real people making a difference in the world of work. And now here are your hosts, Steve Boese and Trish McFarlane Steed.

Steve 0:44
Welcome to the At Work in America show, Trish, how are you today?

Trish 0:48
I’m great. How are you? Steve?

Steve 0:50
I am well Trish, this is a great day for us. In our long standing tradition dating back to I don’t know, oh, nine, maybe 10 years. I don’t know when we first started doing the Oscar time ago. And review and prediction shows. But we’re excited to do it again. And especially because now Trish, like we are you know, kind of pivoting the podcast a little bit really trying to focus on stories. Stories of the world at work, stories of people. And what are the Oscars about right, what are the movies about all about? Storytelling and great stories. So I think it’s a good fit.

Trish 1:25
I agree. And this is one where we kind of talked early on about maybe not doing the episode this year. And I’m glad we did. I hope you’re glad to.

Steve 1:35
Yeah, I mean, the reason maybe not to do the episode wasn’t so much about the podcast in the new direction. It was the quality of the movies and the number of them. But we can get into some of that when we talk about the movies. But for new listeners, once a year, Trish and I sort of take a break from the world of work directly in the workplace. We talk about the Oscars, right, because we’re big fans of movies. We’ve watched a lot of great movies over the last half a dozen years in preparation for the show. So we’re gonna talk about the Oscars Best Picture, the acting categories, and maybe some of the other things we saw on the run up to the show that we liked and give our thoughts, recommendations and predictions. But before we start with that, Trish, I want to thank our friends at Paychex. I know they always love this show as well. So thanks to Paychex, one of the leading providers of HR, payroll, retirement and software solutions for businesses of all sizes. The pandemic has completely changed how many people work, leaving millions of jobs seekers reevaluating their priorities and making it vital for employers to find new ways to keep them supported and engaged paychecks surveyed more than 600 HR leaders, more than 2000 employees across the US to find out what employers are getting wrong when it comes to the needs of their workforce. And what they found was a large discrepancy between what employees want and what employers think they want when it comes to their organizations. You can find out why employees maybe some of your own employees are saying they’re leaving their current companies and what you should be thinking about to attract and retain talent. You can find all this at payx.me/attractingandretainingtalent. That link will be in the show notes. Thanks to our friends at Paychex, of course.

Steve 3:11
Alright, Trish. Oscars. First of all, before we dive into the categories, do you want tell me just can I get Oscar year 2021? You know, awards in 2022. But movies in 2021? Give me your general thoughts compared to say some of the last few years that we’ve done the show?

Trish 3:28
I’m glad you asked that I will say I’m ending up happily surprised some of the movies were really, really good. And as you mentioned before, we we thought that maybe this particular list of movies this year was not going to be as good maybe as prior years. I do think that’s true. I don’t know if it’s because some of these are most of these were, you know, created during the pandemic. They had their own challenges as workplaces, right. We don’t intend this to be a workplace thing. But when you think about all of the actors and writers and directors and everyone involved in a movie production, I’m sure they had quite a few challenges. So yeah, that being said, I don’t think that is a total slate that it is as strong as years pass. But I do think there are some really bright stars in there so hopefully we will agree on a couple of those and I think to just to be fair you and I usually truly try and watch every single movie both of us do in preparation for this and I think we’ve probably hit most of them this year as well but I think maybe is in different than years past we have maybe not seen every single movie so just fair warning.

Steve 4:13
There have been a few years that I’ve definitely caught all of these the best picture ones I did not this year I tried my best. Why was tougher this year it seems seem tougher to meet for I don’t know why, but it did but we’ll go through this and you know, as always, we’ll share our thoughts if there was a movie that came up or a performance they came up that obviously that we didn’t see. You know, we generally can’t recommend that are picket but we’ll do our best to get through the least the few major categories so I Trish let’s get started what category should you jump in first but when you want to go sort of smaller category to bigger and end with Best Picture and you want to go right out the bat was best picture.

Trish 5:15
You know I think we should go smaller to bigger. Right, we usually ended with the best picture. People will probably have a guess by that point because some of the acting categories will tip our hands a little but I think it’d be fun to start with those.

Steve 5:30
Okay, all right then we’re going to go with we’ll start at the bottom and work our way up on our list. I’ll start by reading this category. Okay. Best Actress in a Supporting Role. Okay, here are your nominees. Jessie Buckley from the Lost Daughter, Ariana DeBose West Side Story, Judi Dench, Belfast, Kristen Dunst, The Power of the Dog. Aunjanue Ellis, King Richard, I just finished watching King Richard like 20 minutes ago Trish, by the way. So I’ll throw it to you for your thoughts on this category.

Trish 6:05
You know, of all the categories there. This is the one where I had a couple I did not watch. So maybe just a little commentary. There were certainly some performances here where I thought the performance was outstanding in the movie was maybe not as good overall. So one that I really enjoyed was Jessie Buckley in the Lost Daughter, I thought that she did an excellent job of just like drawing me in. I really felt like at times where she was, I don’t know, almost portraying like lonely as the young mother, it just really just related to me, I think at times, so in that regard, I thought that was really good. I didn’t care so much for Ariana DeBose or however you say that in the West Side Story. And Kirsten Dunst, I usually love her but again, her role in Power of the Dog, I just I don’t know I wasn’t buying it. So the one I didn’t see was Belfast, so I love Judi Dench, she’s amazing. So I guess I could see it going to her. But if I had to vote myself and I did see Richard too, but Jessie Buckley would get my vote.

Steve 7:26
Okay, well, I’m glad see, this is good Trish, that I like often it works out this way that a couple of the movies you saw I didn’t see maybe and a couple that you didn’t see. I think I maybe have seen so for me. I saw Belfast and Power of the Dog and King Richard. I didn’t not see West Side Story or The Lost Daughter. To me. It’s a recency bias, and I just finished watching King Richard, Aunjanue Ellis I thought was excellent as as the the Williams sisters mom in the movie, right? Right. Like it was it she wasn’t huge part of the movie, the first half of it. Maybe she was there, but kind of the movies largely about the dad Richard, right. That’s why it’s called King Richard, I suppose. But she really comes in and there’s one. Like a lot of these movies Trish, I think you realize this too. Like they have one big quote unquote, Oscar scene in them, right? Where like you say, Okay, this is the scene that’s put in there for these actors to get nominated. And there was one there’s a really kind of heartfelt, angry little teary kind of argument between the parents, the Williams parents in the movie, and it’s a great scene. It goes on for a little while, and she’s great in that scene and the whole movie. Well, I’m gonna go with her. I’m gonna go with Aunjanue Ellis here, an actress I’d never heard of before this movie, by the way, either. I thought she was great.

Trish 8:42
You know, I would agree with you. I didn’t know who she was. She seems like such an adorable woman. Let me just say that I saw an interview with her yesterday as a matter of fact. And she was talking about how she didn’t look at her phone or even turn it on on the day of the nomination announcement. Because everyone in her life was saying like, Oh, you’ve you’re going to get nominated, you’re going to get nominated. And, you know, I what I love is she was very humble. And so I don’t let me ask you this. I feel like time after time. You know, we have these Oscar shows. And I don’t know how the actual people who are voting on these things, but I tend to gravitate to the roles where I relate a little more to the person. But I guess my question for you is, do you have to like the character in order for it to be the winner because for example, I’m like rethinking now. Kirsten Dunst I love her as an actress. I didn’t like her character, but she did a good job playing that unlikable character.

Steve 9:44
I don’t know. For me, I don’t think so. Like that way like you can be open to the villain character. You know, being someone you pick for an acting award. I think that’s okay. I think we’ll see when we get to Best Actor from Benedict Cumberbatch is not really likeable for the vast majority of that movie and he’s probably one of the frontrunners to win, I think this year so yeah, no, I’m okay with that. I just, you know, on balance, I thought of the ones I saw as she would get probably a touch of recency bias. I literally finished that movie this morning. She was great.

Trish 10:19
So yeah, what’s, what’s the buzz? Steve? I haven’t I haven’t looked on any of these categories. Have you heard or seen like who are kind of you know, Vanity magazine and all that. Well, like, what are they?

Steve 10:31
Yeah, you know, I don’t know. I’ve not read any prediction kind of pieces at all. Okay, all right. Well, I’m oblivious.

Trish 10:38
I will go with that then.

Steve 10:40
I spent a lot of time to the probably to the detriment of Oscar movie watching, I’m going to admit here publicly, I spent a lot of time deeply immersed in this recently concluded season of The Bachelor, Trish. So I’ve really been focusing my entertainment energy elsewhere to for large part.

Trish 10:58
We’ll save that for another show. But let me just a simple question. Are you satisfied with who he selected?

Steve 11:04
I mean, if I hope it works out for him and her that’s I guess I would say yeah, we should we will have an exciting next season of The Bachelorette with two bachelorettes by the way, which is going to be exciting.

Trish 11:14
Is that what they’re doing? I wasn’t a Bachelor watcher. But what do you call that? Is there there’s a name for that right?

Steve 11:20
Bachelor nation we call it.

Trish 11:22
I’m not a member of Bachelor nation. But I did watch bits and pieces of the finale just because I knew you were so into it. And yeah, he really he doesn’t deserve any of the three honestly.

Steve 11:37
Let’s get back to the Oscars just because you let me talk. I’ll keep talking about it. Alright, let’s do best actor and supporting Well, that sounds good. All right, your nominees Trish. Kieran Hines from Belfast, Troy Kotzur from Coda, Jesse Plemons from The Power of the Dog, JK Simmons. I think former Oscar winner himself in Being the Ricardos and Kodi Smit McPhee, The Power of the Dog?

Trish 12:04
Well, I will tell you as I said before, I didn’t see Belfast I just I don’t know ran out of time. I guess it personally it doesn’t look that interesting to me. So I wasn’t like really jumping at the chance to see it.

Steve 12:17
I think you’d like it. I’ll just throw that out there. By the way.

Trish 12:20
Would I? Okay, I probably would and I sometimes I think with Oscar nominated movies, you have to be in the right mood to see the movie. So I’m gonna pass on that one. I love JK Simmons just anyway and I will say this. I did not care for that movie. I thought he did a great job in Being the Ricardos but I did not care for that movie. And I was a huge I Love Lucy fan growing up and still to this day. Power of the Dog. I liked that movie surprisingly well. I want to watch it twice because the first time was kind of iffy on it. I thought both Jesse Plemons did a good job in in Coda. But my favorite in this category like like hands down goes to Troy Kotzur from Coda. Okay, he was amazing. Did you see Coda? Did you watch?

Steve 13:10
This is one I missed. I did not see this one.

Trish 13:12
Darn it. So at some point, please watch it, it will go back and talk about that. And maybe I’ll do Belfast and we can do a little recap later. But you know, Coda is child of deaf adults and, and he is the dad. And so just the way that he has to communicate throughout the entire movie without talking his body language, his facial expressions his you can see his joy and his passion and his hatred for people. And he was he was really funny. So yeah, I’m gonna go for him. I think he did an excellent job.

Steve 13:47
Okay, good. All right, I’m gonna have to catch that one I wanted to I did run out of time. So for me of this, I did not see Being the Ricardos or Coda. So I’ve got a pick from one I saw. It’s a tough one because I like Belfast a lot. We’ll talk about that later when we get to Best Picture. Kieran Hines plays the grandpa of the family in the movie. And it’s he’s good, but it is a it is a very small role, you know, and he’s in the supporting category, but he’s not. It’s not a major part of the movies got a couple of good scenes. So it sounds to me the two actors in the Power of the Dog, which I liked a lot. It’s tough to choose. I’m gonna have to go as Kodi Smit McPhee. Trish, and this one he plays the boy slash young man in the movies in a lot of the movies got he’s got a bigger more important role. Probably then Jesse Plemons. He’s very good in it he although he seems like he’s got kind of the same kind of facial expression the whole movie that’s maybe not his fault. That’s kind of the the part they wrote for him, but he was really good in it. I feel like this movie is just going to win a lot. Right? That’s just my if I had to make a general prediction about the Oscars, I think this movie is going to win a lot of awards. So I’m gonna go with him.

Trish 14:57
He was great. He really was I don’t want to do diminish his performance. He he also kind of really evolves in that role. He starts out fairly just, you know more the shy down beaten kind of a person and really by the end you kind of respect him because he’s his wheels are turning definitely he’s not just a pushover as you might believe in the beginning, so I’ll leave it at that. I will say to just in both these categories, I find it pretty interesting that this year, we have two different couples that I’m aware of who are married and both nominated. So Jesse Plemons is married to Kirsten Dunst.

Steve 15:35
Oh, in real life, in real life.

Trish 15:37
Yeah. And if you want to see a great movie with them, actually, it wasn’t the movie. It was the show made of the movie is Fargo. They both played in Fargo. I don’t know if that’s where they met. But they’re both in the series Fargo.

Steve 15:52
A married couple in the movie that was in the Power of the Dog.

Trish 15:56
Right. But they’re in real life. They’re married. Yeah, so it’s a big year for couples. There you go. There’s your trivia of the day.

Steve 16:12
All right, so we’ve got Trish I think here’s now I’m gonna have to really have you carry the podcast for the next several minutes.

Trish 16:19
Oh goodness.

Steve 16:20
So we talk about best actress in the leading role. Here’s the thing, I have a strategy with the to watch these movies and prepare for the show which is start by trying to watch all the best picture nominated movies for because generally speaking, that then covers a lot of the acting roles, nominations etc The directing that type of thing music we sometimes we get into those weird categories we probably want today. So as many of them as I watched and I watched as many as I could, the five actresses who are nominated for Best Actress in the leading role the five films that they represent none of them none of them Trish, our Best Picture nominees like how does that happen?

Trish 17:03
I don’t know honestly. And some of them that were selected after because I did I watched all but one only because it wasn’t available at the time and I will I will watch is just now available I believe. So I will try and watch it but yeah, this was a tough category this year.

Steve 17:21
The nominees and then then you can talk about them since you have to leave this section completing the search. I saw none of these. Okay, no, Jessica Chasteen. The eyes of Tammy Faye, Olivia Coleman former winner I believe as well. The Lost Daughter, Penelope Cruz, Parallel Mothers, Nicole Kidman, Being the Ricardos and Kristen Stewart for Spencer. Trish, take it away. I have nothing to add.

Trish 17:46
Alright, well, since it’s just me, I’ll try and keep this brief. The movie I did not see is Parallel Mothers, although I really want to. It’s actually I believe, just out now. And so definitely living where I live. It wasn’t out at a movie theater near me. So that one I do want to see it does from the trailers. Looks like she’s doing an amazing job. But of the ones I saw the other four. I will start with the ones that I did not care for. I’m a huge Lady Diana fan. I loved her. I cried like crazy when she passed. So I thought I would love the movie Spencer with Kristen Stewart. I’m sorry, Kristen Stewart basically doesn’t even have a British accent. All she does is whisper the whole movie so totally unbelievable. Did she kind of get the mannerisms down? Yes, she did. But for that alone, I feel like if you can that like why do we constantly put people into roles where they don’t have maybe the right accent and can’t get can’t get it? There had to have been British actresses. Even Australian actresses maybe who could have done a better job at that particular movie. So the story was good. She was not Nicole Kidman just annoys me. Another one didn’t didn’t look like Lucille Ball. I didn’t feel like she captured the spirit of Lucille Ball and being the Ricardos I just didn’t even want to watch it because of her. So I watched it painfully her out then. Okay, so those two I just now Olivia we get to Olivia Coleman. As people who might have listened before now, I love Olivia Coleman. I loved her in the favorite. That movie is when I watch all the time. I think she is brilliant.

Trish 19:31
The writing of her role in the lost daughter is just confusing. It’s a lot of non acting. If you ask me it’s a lot of whatever’s in Olivia Coleman’s head is what’s going on. And it’s not being spoken. It’s not being visually shared. So there’s a lot of her sitting in a beach looking at an ocean. She steals some little girls doll. There’s a lot of scenes with her in this doll. I don’t know I didn’t get it. This might make me seem a little a little crazy, but I love Tammy Faye Baker. I did growing up her big eyelashes, her makeup whose character that’s for sure. Oh my goodness, right like who didn’t know her? She seemed like such a lovely woman, you know in real life. Jessica Chasteen. Again, this is where an actress does not have to actually look like the person but can completely nail their voice, their mannerisms the whole way. They just they’re being I thought she did. So my vote goes to Jessica Chasteen. She actually to me became Tammy Faye Baker.

Steve 20:41
So I like it. Okay, Trish I met,

Trish 20:45
No, that’s it. That’s my Oh, great,

Steve 20:47
Great job. Thank you for covering that category very thoroughly. For me, I will say this. I mentioned I said, I have nothing to say about this guy. Right. But I do have something to say. Sometimes in the past, we’ve sort of said, Hey, let’s let’s talk about our snub who got snubbed for a poor nomination that we really feel sure strongly about. So I’ll kind of combine my snub here and as Best Actress category I know you didn’t see this one Trish, but catching on from Belfast, she plays the mom in the movie was not nominated at all, I think she could have been nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role, or, or certainly a supporting role. She you know, she it’s hard to know sometimes where that line is in a movie. But she was fantastic. In the movie. She’s very central to the movie, the movie was nominated for Best Picture, as well as a couple of other awards. How she didn’t get a nomination out all is very, very surprising to me. And because if she had been in this category, I absolutely would have chosen her. So there you go.

Trish 21:44
You know, I think there were a couple. I think that’s a good point. I think Amelia Jones, who’s the lead in Coda, she’s amazing. I mean, she’s dealing with an entire deaf family and trying to be their translator and also live her life and it was just a really touching story. And I thought that actress just nailed it completely. And then I think the other one you know, we haven’t haven’t gotten to the best pictures yet, but in Licorice Pizza. Oh, gosh, her name is Alanna Hyams, the actress that plays the lead role. She’s so brilliant. Like, I literally want to just watch. That’s a snub. Yeah, I want to watch her and everything. So I don’t know what they were thinking is it? Well, I’ll tell you what they were thinking. It seems like many of the newcomers didn’t get nominated.

Steve 22:35
Could be you may have to have built up a little reputation, etc. Right to get that?

Trish 22:39
Yeah, that shouldn’t be the case. It should be based on your performance in this particular movie. So anyway, it looks great.

Steve 22:47
Yeah, that’s good. Alright, so in a lot of in that category, let’s go to church Best Actor in a Leading Role. Okay. You mentioned him already, but your nominees start with Javier Bardem, Being the Ricardos. Wait a minute, you know, I mentioned when we talked about the actress award. Being Ricardos has three major acting nominations yet not a Best Picture nomination. Like I don’t understand that. I did not see this movie. But how can the acting be like wonderful basically from the three main characters, but the movies not nominated. I don’t get that. Our next nominee is Benedict Cumberbatch. Power of the Dog. Andrew Garfield from Tick Tick Boom. Will Smith, King Richard and finally Denzel Washington, The Tragedy of Macbeth. It’s a packed category.

Trish 23:40
Why don’t you take the lead on that one then? So it sounds like you’ve seen them.

Steve 23:43
As I’ve mentioned, a couple of these I didn’t see. I did not see Denzel in Macbeth. I love Denzel. I just was not down for like Shakespeare a deal on you know, with limited time and how to pick my spots on movies you know, and again, focusing on the best picture ones I did not see this. I know the story. I’m sure he was great in it. Tick Tick. Boom. I didn’t hear anything about so I did not watch so I have nothing to say about that. Perhaps I don’t know Trisha, you saw Tick Tick Boom, featuring Andrew Garfield.

Trish 24:11
I can talk about those two. I watched about 30 minutes of each of those movies. Tick Tick Boom is about the man that wrote the musical Rent. Again. Huge Rent fan. I’ve watched the movie I’ve seen it at you know live performances several times. I didn’t know every song in that, you know, musical. I did not care and I love Andrew Garfield in other things. Didn’t care for the movie. It was completely bored by the movie.

Steve 24:42
Garfield, I feel like he was he was at war movie he was in it was a Dunkirk?

Trish 24:47
It was Hacksaw Ridge. Oh, right. Yeah. Hacksaw Ridge, which again, great. He’s a great actor. He really is. He’s fantastic. Denzel Washington. What I will say is that I’m not a huge Shakespeare fan, but I did watch about 30 minutes so that I could kind of get the get the vibe. She’s the one who got the snub in that movie, but the movie is great. If you like Shakespeare, it is dark and just really well done really cool.

Steve 25:20
Shakespeare is like too much like homework like from, like, 11th grade. I’m just not down anymore.

Trish 25:25
I wasn’t down for it. But I will say this, if you like Denzel and if you do like Shakespeare, it’s a great movie. I just didn’t care for it. So I wouldn’t.

Steve 25:34
For me. This is pretty easy. I mentioned before I like the Power of the Dog. I liked it more than I watched twice. I liked it more the second time. I think it’s going to win a lot of awards. And I think Benedict Cumberbatch is the favorite here. If I did not read who the favorite is. I imagine he is. I think he’s going to win. I thought it was excellent. In the movie. He’s in the entire movie. So he’s my winner here. And I don’t think it’s that debatable.

Trish 26:02
I’m gonna agree with you. And usually we don’t agree on these. So yeah, I love Javier. I thought he did an okay job in Being the Ricardos but again, I think it’s really hard when you take an iconic person and you’re trying to be them I thought it was easier maybe for like a Will Smith to be you know, Venus and Serena, his dad because we don’t know that much about him in real life. Right? Yeah.

Steve 26:27
Unless you’re a super deep tennis fan. You’ve probably never heard him talk right? Really seen in the interview. Although at the end of that movie, when again, I just watched this this morning, the end of it, they they show some clips when the closing credits are running of the you know, the real Richard Williams and real Williams sisters when they were going up through their career practicing and competing etc, etc. The resemblance with the the hair and the beard and how they dressed the character Will Smith in the movie. It’s uncanny really does look just like the real Richard Williams.

Trish 26:58
Yeah, well, I think you’re right. I think Benedict Cumberbatch will win for Power of the Dog. I think if he doesn’t, if there’s an upset it is Will Smith and I’d be fine with that. I think he did a nice job too. So it was great.

Steve 27:09
He was excellent in the movie. Yeah. And really, yeah, he’d be my runner up as well. Trish, the last major category, we were planned to talk about his courses, Best Picture, but before that, sometimes on these shows, because you and I both really love documentaries. I don’t think I saw any of the nominated documentaries this year, but you saw at least one that you wanted to mention and recommend.

Trish 27:32
I do. Thank you for mentioning it. It’s a movie called Ascension. And I you know, I tried to watch a couple of the documentaries just because like you said, we both really enjoy that type of film. And, you know, the documentaries, quite honestly are usually all really good, right? People are telling stories talking about true storytellers. They’re out there on the frontlines of whatever it is they’re they’re doing. Ascension is really fascinating to me from a work perspective, because it is about the different job classes within the Chinese system. And so it starts out and you’re seeing people who are, you know, making $2 and the equivalent of $2.99 a week, sometimes it’s just tragic, right is to what people are being paid to make things like cell phones and other products that we here in the US buy directly from China. And, so and then it goes all the way up through kind of the what what their middle class would be, which is certainly still below what I think it would be in the United States and then to the jobs where, you know, it’s considered kind of the upper upper echelon of jobs in China. So it’s fascinating. There’s not a lot of talking. It’s just a lot of watching so I would encourage people to check that one out.

Steve 28:54
Yeah, I’m gonna check that out. That’d be good. Like weekend watch. Maybe? Yeah, absolutely. I dig the documentaries. I I did not catch any of the major ones. But I watched one on the plane I was on recently trician a new documentary about Julia Child, right, the famous French chef. Years back passed away a little while back, but it was fantastic documentary. Then I saw that it was released in 2021. And I was I was certain it would have been nominated. And then I looked up the nominations when I got off the plane and it wasn’t so I was really bummed by that. But it’s an excellent documentary as well. Perhaps another snub to the recent Julia Child documentary. I’ll throw it out there.

Trish 29:31
Good. Yeah. See, that’s just it. I think that’s why these shows are good because we can talk about other things that we thought were you know, maybe better than some of what was actually nominated. So I’ll check that right Trish.

Steve 29:42
Let’s get to the big one. Let’s talk about the Best Picture nominees give our sort of thoughts on in our prediction and what we like best I’ll run them down, name them quickly. I I’ve got all the producers names. I’m not going to read any of those but just just go with the names. Alphabetical order, here we go, Best Picture nominees that are 10 We have Belfast, Coda, Don’t Look Up, which we have not talked to at all on this podcast. Drive my Car, Dune, King Richard, Licorice Pizza, Nightmare Alley, The Power of the Dog and finally West Side Story. And with all due respect to Steven Spielberg Trish, was anyone asking for a remake of West Side Story?

Trish 30:29
I don’t think so. If they were they’ll be disappointed, I think.

Steve 30:35
Yeah, that’s if I had to pick one that was on this list? That would be the one for me. I don’t get that.

Trish 30:43
Yeah. You know, there were only a couple I didn’t see. I didn’t see Drive my Car. It was difficult to find. I just still have not found it online.

Steve 30:51
Talk about that one. Yeah, I watched it.

Trish 30:53
Is it online? Now? Is that available?

Steve 30:54
You can stream it. I believe I had to actually purchase it. But you can stream it at home. Yeah.

Trish 31:00
Okay. And then I had mentioned I didn’t see Belfast, but the others I can certainly weigh in on. So do you want to? How do you want to do this? Do you want to start at the top? Do you want to say which one you want to win?

Steve 31:11
Yeah, this is such an obviously, we probably want to talk about all 10 of these but a couple that we have not talked about at all right? Because they weren’t nominated categories. First one would be Drive my Car, then she didn’t see this. This is a Japanese film. So heavily subtitled very little English spoken in the movie. So a lot of subtitles, and it’s very long. So I could see why a lot of folks maybe not either they couldn’t find it, as you said, or just saw it and said, Well, this is a three hour movie and subtitles. I’m not game for this. A little bit difficult to watch due to those kind of parameters, but really, really enjoyable, the kind of movie it’s it’s kind of a long tale about a director, an actor and a director of a play. And he’s directing a play from a Russian writer on the Uncle Vanya play. So the backstory is kind of him putting together this play with the actors and then what’s happening to him and his real life. It’s a very long fairly complex story, but it’s very good it has the it does have that big Oscar scene near the end where the actor playing the the director of the play and his driver kind of the drive my car and saying he’s got a driver sign tunes a younger female who he befriends and they become really tight they’ve got very very tragic backstories the both of them kind of a really good kind of movie, like I could see it winning maybe because it’s kind of an Oscar movie. And we did have kind of a foreign, the Parasite movie won, right was that just last year or the year before? Like a foreign film has just recently won? I liked it a lot. If you are if you are a fan of movies, I think I’d recommend watching it and devoting like the the three hours to it. On the other side. You mentioned the other one we haven’t talked about at all. I guess these two more we haven’t talked about Nightmare Alley Trish. I think you saw that one.

Trish 33:03
I tried. I wanted to. Yeah, I just say how much I wanted to love it because there the buzz online it was so bad. And it has like every famous person you’d ever want in a movie. So you’re thinking like it should be great. It also is directed by Guillermo del Toro who who won for the Shape of Water. I don’t know how that should have tipped me off, but I don’t know. It’s all about carnies and dark. Yeah, it’s just difficult. It felt like homework to watch it. After about 30 minutes I quit.

Steve 33:38
I had to rewatch the ending a second time just to try and make sure I knew what had happened and I don’t want to spoil it. It’s but it’s very dark. It’s a little depressing. Bradley Cooper is very good in it. I’m a little surprised he didn’t get nominated in the acting category. But I didn’t love it. I can’t see it winning here West Side Story. It’s got no chance. So if I’m going to narrow it down to the two I would say, I think just because be consistent with everything I’ve said on this podcast, I think the Power of the Dog will win. I think it probably in this list. I just think it’s gonna have like it’s kind of a sweep of everything. The movie I like the best was one you didn’t see I’ll lean up which is Belfast. I really I that was my favorite movie I just said which movie did I quote unquote like the best good story was take good acting some acting nominations very, very major snub all the acting was great. And at the story’s very gripping, right, it’s set in Northern Ireland in Belfast, during the struggles between the the Protestants and the Catholics and there’s there’s some violence there’s some a lot of tension, and also Trish is in a shocking and a shocking development for an Oscar nominated movie Trish. This is about like a 93 minute movie. It’s not a three hour so you can you can watch it. It’s a great story. It ends you know, it’s so yeah, it’s probably my favorite of what I saw. So I will say power the dog will win. If I was voting I think I vote for Belfast because I liked it the best.

Trish 35:03
Interesting, so and this is a good thing because we always disagree at the end on the big one so you didn’t really go into don’t look up I just want to say there that Leonardo DiCaprio that’s another one that should be great. It’s not their fault. I just think it’s a weird movie. I think it’s 90. I did watch the whole thing. I kept thinking it would get better. I get that it’s a comedy a little bit. But yeah, not a great movie. Dune.

Steve 35:29
Well, yeah. It’s just hits you right over the head with the satire and okay, global warming is horrible. And no one no one’s doing anything about it. Right. We got it.

Trish 35:38
I feel like we should at least mention Dune. We’ve got Timothy chelonae. You got other again, several other really well known actors and actresses in there should be good to me. It’s like did we need to redo Dune? I don’t know. You know, it wasn’t. It wasn’t that compelling the first time around? Not this time either. Okay, that brings me to my two favorites. When I saw Coda. That one was just over the top, my favorite. I thought, oh my gosh, this has to win. This has to win the performance. Like I said, young girl, she’s trying to live her life but she’s also trying to help her deaf family run their fishing business. And it has all sorts of problems. It’s a sweet story. It’s a touching story. It’s a family story. So everything good about it. It is absolutely going to be hands down my favorite until I saw Licorice Pizza. Licorice pizza. I just saw it yesterday. And I thought you know should I watch this? I’m not sure if it looks that great. It stars as I mentioned a lot of ham. She is actually a singer with her sisters who are also in the movie they play her sisters her parents in real life.

Steve 36:52
Okay, I watched this movie. I liked it. I didn’t love it. But go ahead.

Trish 36:56
And the young man that plays Gary Valentine her you know her male counterpart in the movie. He is the son of oh my goodness time.

Steve 37:07
Ellis Valentine the former New York minute.

Trish 37:09
No, no. Gary Valentine is this character’s name? It’s Hofmann the the one that died that was in. Oh my gosh. Philip Seymour Hoffman. Philip Seymour Hoffman. Thank you. Oh, great actor. Yeah, his son is the lead. I didn’t know that. Okay, yes. And he said adorable and you just fall in love with his personality. So if I said I feel like Licorice Pizza, or Coda, one of them is going to come from behind much like parasite did years ago. I think Power of the Dog is great. But I really want to see one of those to just come out of nowhere and just take the wind so I would personally be happy with either one. Those are both movie movies. I will watch more than once. That’s good.

Steve 37:54
I mean, I think like on balance it ended up being a slightly better slate of 10 movies than I thought going in I was very very kind of down on this and I did I did not see Coda so that’s of all of them. Trish, I gotta that’s the one I will first go back and watch maybe hopefully prior to the not the awards show coming up in a few days. And I would recommend to you if you got three hours on your hands Trish take it take a shot at drive my car. Maybe do it and stay I didn’t watch it all straight through. I probably took three watching periods to get through them. Right. But I did like it quite a bit and yeah, so yeah, I think we got through it trash. Wow. I mean, and even even the stripped down Oscar episode is is a lot to get through. So I’m glad we were able to do it. I feel I’m glad we’re able to like keep this tradition alive here. Now on At Work in America.

Trish 38:44
Me too. Again, it’s all about storytelling. And surprisingly, a lot of these movies have so much to do with work and how people interact, and people who have different abilities or disabilities and challenges. If you look at something like a King Richard, for example, just you know how determination and hard work really pays off. I mean, there’s just so many kind of work themes throughout these movies that Yeah, I think it was fun. I’m glad we did it.

Steve 39:13
All right, Trish, great, great stuff. We want to of course, thanks, everybody for listening. Thanks for joining us for our annual Oscars preview prediction show. The Oscars coming up just a couple days. We’ll follow up maybe on maybe on the on the off the clock video show Trish like on the day after the Oscars and see how we did with our predictions. We’ll talk about that a little bit in a week or so.

Trish 39:32
Ooh, I love that. Let’s do it.

Steve 39:34
All right, great stuff. Okay. So that’s it for the show. Thanks, of course, to our friends at Paychex, of course for all their help and support. I know they love the show. And they’ve been great to us and we thank them very, very much. Just check out everything that they’re doing at paychex.com. Okay. For Trish McFarlane, my name is Steve Boese. Thank you so much for listening to the show all the archives course at HR Happy Hour dot net. We will see you next time. Bye for now.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai