It’s time for our first annual Oscar Bait Breakdown on the Now Conspiring podcast, but that’s not all we covered this week. We also did a full Show and Tell, which included more new movies than ever thanks to our alarming movie theater habit…
You can also download this podcast episode on iTunes and Stitcher.
QUESTION OF THE WEEK: Which Oscar bait movies are you excited to see, and which fictional characters do you imagine when you hear our podcast voices?
Let us know your thoughts (and your favorite podcast moments) in the comments, which we may read on next week’s show! Also, don’t forget to follow us on Facebook so you can send us direct messages and get podcast updates crazy fast. And be sure to subscribe on iTunes and/or Stitcher, where you can also rate/review the podcast if you like it!
SHOW NOTES:
00:00:00 – The Last Cappuccino.
00:07:48 – Show and Tell
00:50:35 – 2016 Oscar Bait Breakdown
01:37:00 – Feedback: we answer your questions and read your comments from last week.
This week’s cast:
Jon Negroni, Kayla Savage, Maria Garcia, Adonis Gonzalez, Sam Noland.
I said this before in every Oscar Season and I will say it again. If regular moviegoers decided Oscar Nominees and/or Winners, the Oscars would look extremely different.
How different would the Oscars be if those random moviegoers chose the Oscar Nominees and/or Winners instead of some preselected committee of Hollywood Insiders?
I predict Disney would dominate the entire Oscars if that was the case. Marvel and Star Wars would very well be serious nominees for the Oscars every year.
I think we could be looking at people starting a movie revolution and demanding change from the “Status Quo” when the nominees end up white again…
So the question of the week, one I don’t really care about the oscars but luckily my comment last week made another question of the week. First Jon I think of you as the cartoon picture at the top of the page I’m commenting on right now, Adonis I imagine you as one of the Star Wars rebels ( to the show, the ones who get murdered by storm troopers at the beginning of episode 5) Sam I imagine you as an older version of napoleon dynamite (I love that movie) Kayla I imagine you as Pocahontas just because you said jokingly, I’m 1/16 Native American in that one episode, and Maria I kind of picture you as one of the lord of the rings/the hobbit elves.
Now for my actual comment.
First Adonis super hero squad is not that bad, but I haven’t revisited it in eons so.
Second Sam you are my second on my list of favorite comedians, just behind john mullany, I just started the list.
Jon about your YouTube channel I have a few tips, unlike anyone else I actually want you to keep doing voiceovers, but I would like to see longer full theories on your channel kind of like game/film theory. I was fascinated by your prediction that tad Ashli would come back as sunfire and I was left wanting more. I know I could of just read the theory on jonnegroni.com but why would I return to such privatize forms of entertainment like Adonis.
You guys talked about trolls and sing for a little bit so I want to talk about it a little. First I have not seen Trolls but just by walking along the aisles of a super Walmart you can tell it was a cash grab to sell merchandise, as for sing, I saw the trailer when I saw moana, loved moana not so much the trailer, illumination was trying to make the trailer look like Pixar but for a lot of people illumination has devolved into a mess that can’t tell stories without minions or outside despicible me without it they make movies just pandering to kids while Pixar and Disney can tell intelligent stories that all ages can enjoy, critics “like” illumination movies, they are crowd pleasers, but it’s easy to be a crowd pleaser when 3/4 of your audience is six year olds. I’m really. It surprised Sing is failing
Now for my show and tell.
You know how I said I saw moana, I wrote a theory about it and luckily I chose you guys to first publish it on. It’s about the kakamora or the coconut pirates. My arguments are that the kakamora are not simply evil and they are not monsters. First I think you all assumed that their coconut shells just grew on them but I think that they are trying to protect themselves by wearing the coconut husks. Did you notice that their skin that’s not coconut shell is actually a pinkish tone. Also they can’t move their coconut faces, but they do spread pigment on their shells to simulate emotion. But if they were born with the coconut shells they could not see the others emotions. What I’m proposing is that at birth they do not have coconut shells, once they see old enough they use a system of passing a thread of coconut shells to seal themselves inside, they would also do this for mating season. The final statement is that they are trying to get the heart to restore the coconuts that are dying because if all the coconuts are gone, then they are vunreble and are very likely to go extinct. Also the kakamora in real Islander mythology are smal, people and don’t look them up they are really scary and it could be a Disney move to cover their faces to… not traumatize kids. I know it’s not the best theory but I think it was fun to write and it has more bearings than the theory Adonis wrote about fant4stic beasts.
I believe that when it comes to the Oscars, that the films that they pick to nominate are done so because they were actually well made movies. I do not believe that it is a “subject matter” thing or that they only go for “that type of movie,” if that were the case, Mad Max: Fury Road and The Martian would have been left out of the Best Picture race. Going to what you were saying Jon about how sick you are of biopics, frankly, I am too. On top of all the unnecessary sequels and remakes we get in the summer, now in the fall and winter we get all these stories based off of real life. I do think that filmmakers should work to inform the public of true stories, but when everybody does it, and only to win an award, it gets very dull and predictable. Spotlight was well intended and knew it had a social purpose, but come on: haven’t we seen this type of film a billion times before? I want to see more filmmakers like George Miller or Alejandro Inarritu try doing something new and telling a story entirely from imagination. It seems like the public really needs that. But instead, the academy members have the best of the worst to pick from, which I honestly do believe deserve the honor more than movies that exist only to make money.
And as for the Oscar-bait movies coming out soon, the one I’m most excited for is La La Land.
I’m excited to see my own biopic, which is surely being pitched by several directors now and will be in theaters by february, not even a full year after my ‘incident.’ You’re welcome, Adonis.
LA LA LAND. I’ve missed listening to you guys and commenting. A hiatus is too much for me.
There were so many good movies that came out this year, but I don’t know which I would vote for if I could.
And in terms of how I imagine you all: Sam I picture as one of my online PlayStation friends, a rugby 🏉 player.
Adonis I picture as Casanova.
Jon, I watched one of your ‘Pixar tonight’ episodes so I know your bald, but your voice makes your sound like a tall dark and handsome office worker. Kayla is how I pictured her, she just sounds like a 12 year old.
What was very surprising about this weeks episode is that Maria hosted it. We’re you and Kayla high? You sounded so out of it!!!
Anyway, I’m looking forward to next weeks show. I want to hear all your thoughts about Dr Strange as i thought it was a great way to introduce the use of magic and teaches us the audience about the Marvel multiverse.
I can already predict how Infinity War will pan out.
I’m excited to see La La Land, Silence, and Fences.
The one Oscar Bait that hurts me the most is the “one person/small group vs the system (based on a true story)”. I really want to go see La La Land and Silence.
The thing is, I’ve seen most of your faces. For example Jon has a picture up on the Monsters Inc Wiki (Link: http://monstersincmovies.wikia.com/wiki/Jon_Negroni ). I’ve been subscribed to Maria’s YouTube channel for some time now, and for Kayla and Adonis, I’ve been to your Twitter pages. The only thing here is Sam. With Sam, I have no idea what he really looks like, so I if I had to pick a fictional character to envision with all of his impressions and voices, it’d probably be Robbie Rotten, the Master of Disguise.
I was thinking about who might get nominations for Best Actor, and I thought about all of the best performancea of the year. have a question for you: Do you think John Goodman will get a nomination for 10 Cloverfield Lane? I hope so, I thought he was great in that.
I think that in a perfect world, the Oscar’s would encourage filmmakers to make the best movies that they can, but instead they focus on winning awards, and not much else. It does however help draw attention to movies that otherwise may have been largely ignored in favor of the big blockbuster films.
On another note, I saw Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them last night, and I enjoyed it overall, but was surprised at how lacking the CG was in some places. I also wasn’t a fan of Johnny’s mustache. Seeing Tom Riddle Sr. Was great though!
Oh, and by the way I picture everyone the way actually look, except Sam, who I imagine kind of like Tobey Maguire as Spiderman, as I have no clue what he actually looks like.
So I am the movie theater coffee lady of commenters. I feel like I haven’t commented on a podcast in 13 years and I am SO sorry. I would like to say that Maria you did a lovely job hosting this week. This week the podcast stayed on topic and went everywhere all at once so that is kind of how this comment is gonna go. So first Adonis I’m glad you are still alive and I’m going to vote “Books are good” -Adonis as the number one quote of 2016(PS I also die a little on the inside after reading a good book). Second Jon I absolutely love how serious you were when taking about the spider-man mug. Third Sam are you a theater kid(you were talking about something to do with projecting while on stage thats why I’m asking)?!?! Fourth Maria I agree with you I thought Ratatouille was good but its not ever the first one I think of. Fifth leave Sam alone he liked Moana OK!!! Sixth I really don’t have a sixth but I mentioned everyone but Kayla so hi Kayla!
And for the question of the week I don’t really understand what Oscar bait is so yeah but for the charter thing I don’t think of a specific character but I can tell you the type of character I can see you as. I think each of these character types have a certain look and I am not saying this is you guys but just what I imagine you look like by your voice.
Jon: The super genius know it all that everyone finds really annoying but eventually grows on you like Kevin from Supernatural
Kayla: Some sort of animated Disney princess kind of like Rapunzel from Tangled
Maria: The kick a** lady the randomly shows up during the Apocalypse and saves everyone
Sam: The lead characters best friend that everyone ends up likeing more than the main character
Adonis: The guy that shows up for a certain reason and everyone loves right away but then dies immediately after a few episodes because he was there for one purpose and the writers couldn’t find anything else to do with him
That moment when you realize that you spelled liking with an e and you feel like an idiot.
I stopped watching the Oscars, they seem to have gotten very boring outside of the opening monologue, and many of those movies aren’t out on streaming by the time the awards show rolls around, do I don’t watch them. As for types of films that annoy me, I really hate movies which exploit other people’s cultures, or portray the “white man as saviour” stereotype. If you’re going to show other people’s culture, don’t do the whole “american travels to new land thing”, or don’t make them need saving by a white lead. I hope that going forward people stop going to these movies, so that they’ll stop being made.