It’s the Envelope podcast you love — now in living color!
This week, hosts Mark Olsen, Yvonne Villarreal and Shawn Finnie break down the state of the Oscar race in each of the major categories. Hear about whether your favorite performances and movies are likely to be celebrating on the Academy Awards stage next March, and learn which potential nominees you need to catch up with before voting commences.
Mark Olsen: For the Los Angeles Times, welcome to the Envelope video podcast. I’m Mark Olsen. I write about movies for The Times. Join us this season — we’re going to be checking in with some of the A-list talent that directors, writers, actors and craftspeople behind some of the year’s most exciting movies.
Yvonne Villarreal: That’s right. Mark. Hi, everyone. My name is Yvonne Villarreal and I cover television for the Los Angeles Times. This might feel a little different. Each episode won’t just feature one conversation. We’re going to be bringing you multiple conversations with talent in Hollywood. If you’re listening to us on the regular Envelope podcast feed, be sure to check out latimes.com or the L.A. Times YouTube channel to catch the video versions of our conversations. And we have some exciting news: Helping us this season to bring you a more robust version of the Envelope is this man right here, Shawn Finnie. Shawn, tell us more about yourself.
Shawn Finnie: Hello, L.A. Times. My name is Shawn Finnie. I’m new to this show. Thank you for having me. But not new to the industry. For the last 10 years, deep breath, I’ve been at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, the Oscars, as the executive vice president, member relations and global outreach.
I’m really just excited to be here and extend the conversation you all have already started. And I’m just going to have a little sauce. Yes, a little bit, because I feel like I’m so excited to talk about all the talent that we know and love so much. And it’s an opportunity, I think, to explore some of the talent we don’t know that really kind of helped create the world of the film and cinema that we watch and love. So I’m super excited about that. But I mean, y’all, we’re back after a strike, which felt like 10 years, but wasn’t that long but was that long in a sense. And I know that we’re going to dive into it, but where do you want to start with the state of the race?
Villarreal: We not going to be able to get into everybody that’s a contender. We don’t have that kind of time. And I mean, my brain doesn’t function that way. But, we’re going to get into some of the people that have folks talking, right, Mark?
Olsen: Hopefully, by the end of this conversation, people will feel like they have a good grasp of the titles they should be seeing, some of the talent they should be thinking about and get a kind of an idea of who and what we’re going to be paying attention to over the next few months.
Villarreal: Yeah, to make it easier the next time you’re at a dinner party and people mention these movies, you can have some semblance of an idea of what they’re talking about.
Olsen: Before we get into that, let’s take a short break.
Kingsley Ben-Adir, left, Ryan Gosling and Ncuti Gatwa in “Barbie.”
(Warner Bros. Pictures)
Finnie: Welcome back to the Envelope. I think it’s time for us to get started with supporting actor. Mark, you want to go first?
Olsen: We’re going to be talking about three actors from three movies that are definitely some of the titles of the year. First of all is Robert Downey Jr. in “Oppenheimer.” You know, we’ve gotten so used to seeing him in these sort of lighter, kind of glib roles that I think in some ways people have forgotten what a powerful actor Robert Downey Jr. can be. And so it’s exciting, I think. In “Oppenheimer” he plays this character, Lewis Strauss, who was a sort of a bureaucrat and a government official who Christopher Nolan, the director of the film, was described as the Salieri to Robert Oppenheimer’s Mozart — this man who’s sort of overtaken by his own jealousies, his awareness of his own failings. And it really powers, especially, the second half of the movie, gives the movie a lot of its narrative arc. I think that Downey Jr. is an actor that doesn’t have an Oscar. I think he’s the kind of person people would love to see him recognized. We all know his story. And so I think that someone who’s going to have a really strong presence throughout the season.
Finnie: I have another Robert for you: Robert De Niro, Mr. De Niro, in “Killers of the Flower Moon.” I, listen, I feel like he’s a marquee name. Whenever you see Robert De Niro as a part of something, even “The Intern,” we are excited as moviegoers and as the industry to lean into it. I think that his portrayal here, he humanizes the villain and his portrayal of William Hill is haunting. Honestly. He is kind of propped up as a pillar of the community donating to charities and schools, which helped him really gain the trust of the Osage community, but also helped him gain political power, which was the atrocity of it all, when really he was there to really control their wealth and territory. And he unveils these layers of this evil character throughout the film. And it’s so riveting and haunting, but in a way, you almost want to befriend him because you’re like, “He’s doing the right thing” — until you see he’s doing all of the bad things. And I feel like, honestly, Mr. De Niro, respect for this.
Villarreal: You can’t trust someone with goggles like that.
Finnie: You can’t!
Villarreal: The person I’m going to talk about delivers a Broadway-style song and dance number. I’m talking about Ryan Gosling. I know it feels like an eternity ago when “Barbie” had the sort of Hollywood publicity machine in a chokehold. And I know there were some naysayers about Ryan being cast as Ken: “Is he too old? What’s that platinum blond hair doing?” But I feel like he really delivered this unforgettable performance as this forgettable Ken doll. This is somebody, like his version of Ken is like this insecure guy who’s really eager for Barbie’s attention. When he joins her in this journey into the real world, it’s like he is finding his identity outside of “Barbie.” And I know that it maybe goes against the film’s thematic focus, but I feel like he has one of the most interesting and fun parts in sort of giving this commentary on male fragility. And again, he delivers that “I’m just Ken” number. That was a showstopper. And I have to say, my niece left that film wanting a Ken doll. And she now has that Ken doll and he’s part of every adventure that we have in playtime now.
Finnie: Now, was it just your niece that left wanting the Ken doll?
Villarreal: No, of course not.
Olsen: But I have to say, Shawn, it’s funny. Yvonne and I both had assignments to write about “Barbie.” And so we were one of the first screenings of the movie before anybody really was talking about it or knew anything. And I just remember what a surprise, moment by moment, that entire movie was. To where when it got to “I’m Just Ken,” it was like you were like levitating or something, because the movie was just so surprising, like every moment of it.
Finnie: I was wondering how they were going to include Barbie in today’s world. And just Barbie represented so many different aspects and careers. I loved it.
Villarreal: OK, what about supporting actress?
Finnie: Da’Vine Joy Randolph in “The Holdovers.” I mean, honestly, she’s an artist’s artist. She’s a classically trained opera singer. Did you know that? Graduate of Yale. But how she brings the complexity to this character. So she plays the, she says head chef, head cook, head chef, whatever Da’Vine says I go with. And in this she’s grief-stricken. She’s mourning the loss of her son and also dealing with the complexities of the times that we were in [l1970]. We’re talking about MLK, talking about JFK, we’re talking about the Vietnam War. And she carries this pain on her face the entire time. But does it and has these nuances of joy but also grief. She carries it in such a way that it really illuminates the screen.
Villarreal: What about you, Mark?
Olsen: I want to talk about Julianne Moore in “May December.” The movie re-teamed Julianne with the filmmaker Todd Haynes. They’ve worked together a number of times before, most notably on “Far From Heaven,” for which Julianne was nominated for an Oscar for. And the story of the movie, it’s based loosely on Mary Kay Letourneau. So it’s about a woman who has an illicit relationship with a teenage boy. They ultimately get married, start a family. But the film takes place 20 years after all that, when an actress played by Natalie Portman comes to visit and do some research and sees what’s going on and it just turns everything upside down. And part of what’s so exciting with the movie and I think Julianne’s performance in particular is that, you can never quite get a grasp on what’s going on. It’s funny to me that the movie is competing at the Golden Globes in the comedy or musical category — when, it is funny, but it’s like a catch in your throat kind of funny. So I kind of love the fact that even “What is this movie?” is part of the conversation around the movie itself. And Julianne’s performance really captures that sort of slippage that’s such a part of it.
Villarreal: Well, there’s another industry bet that a lot of people are talking about this season, and that’s Jodie Foster.
Finnie: The Jodie Foster.
Villarreal: The Jodie Foster. All hail Jodie Foster. She’s in Netflix’s “Nyad,” which is this biopic about the marathon swimmer Diana Nyad. And you know she plays the coach and sort of best friend of Diana as she sort of is on this epic swim from Cuba to Florida in her 60s. I just can’t even fathom. Come on, are you are you swimming from Cuba to Florida in your 60s?
Finnie: I am not swimming from Cuba. I’m not swimming down the block.
Villarreal: And Jodie plays Bonnie, her best friend, and she really puts her life on hold to be this fierce advocate for Diana. And, you know, Diana is very self-obsessed. And Bonnie is maybe like the only person that can pierce through that in a way that helps the audience sort of see Diana through her eyes — because she likes her, we like her. And it’s just so fun to see Jodie and Annette Bening, who plays Diana, in this really sort of complex friendship later in life. There’s the selfishness, there’s the sort of loyalty and the unwavering support. It was really a fun dynamic to see on screen. And also, Jodie is going to be headlining the new season of “True Detective.” So I’m all for Jodie Foster season.
Finnie: We all need a Bonnie. Just know that… We are going to explore a little bit more when we come back and we’re going to go into screenplay and directing.
Jon Bernthal and Aunjanue Ellis in “Origin.”
(NEON)
Olsen: Let’s get talking about the screenplay categories. We’re going to kind of mush up adapted and original. Shawn, who are you thinking about?
Finnie: I’m going to go with Ms. [Ava] DuVernay. Her art in “Origin” is moving. I ugly cried.
Villarreal: I did, too.
Finnie: First of all, anytime Ava does something, you know, she has something to say and you know that it means more than what you think it is. And what I love is that it’s an invitation for all people to have further conversation and deep dive into Isabel Wilkerson’s life as she’s writing the book “Caste,” exploring caste systems and how that is not only done in America, but globally and generationally exploring racism — what is racism, what’s not — and loss. … Her work did it for me. And it’s important to note: First Black woman nominated in best picture and I believe for documentary feature as well. And so I feel like we universally love when Ava does something. And I think that people are going to show up to really lean in and hear what she has to say.
Villarreal: This film also really made me want Ava to direct a [romantic drama] — like, the chemistry between Aunjanue and Jon Bernthal. I was ready. Give me more.
Finnie: Hands down.
Olsen: You know, selfishly, as much respect as you have for all that Ava does, working in producing and television, directing documentaries… to have her back directing a feature film, it’s just so exciting. And important. To have her back in the feature film space I think really means a lot.
Villarreal: I’m going to be talking about somebody that I go to when I know I just want to just cry or be broken into a million little pieces. And that is Andrew Haigh, who has given us “All of Us Strangers.” And this is a film that stars Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal. Like, swoon, please. It’s this devastating portrait of loneliness, of regret, of grief from childhood and loss. And those are like, it’s bingo for me, I want all of that in me. Just help me with my seasonal depression. And so in the film, Scott plays a screenwriter in London who’s writing a script about his late parents, who died when he was young. And in the process, he has this chance encounter with this mysterious neighbor of his, and it sort of upends his everyday life and sort of sets off this sort of … supernatural romance kind of drama. How do you bring it all together?
Olsen: That’s what’s funny, there is something mystical about the movie, and it is difficult in a way to talk about it so you don’t feel like you’re spoiling. It’s hard to put your finger on exactly what the movie’s doing and exactly how it’s exploring the relationships in the way that it does.
Villarreal: What about you, Mark?
Olsen: I’m going to talk about Sofia Coppola with her new film, “Priscilla.” It’s hard to believe that it’s been 20 years since she won an Oscar for the screenplay for “Lost in Translation.” And in the time since then she’s just continued to explore the inner lives of girls and women in ways that few other filmmakers do. And with “Priscilla,” as such, it’s an adaptation of the memoir “Elvis and Me” by Priscilla Presley. And Sofia takes this story that I think most people, a lot of other storytellers would explore kitsch aspect of it or some of the more awkward aspects of it. And she transforms it into this sort of journey of self-discovery of Priscilla Presley going from being a young girl sort of under someone’s thumb to becoming a woman of her own sort of power and abilities. And it’s funny. Anecdotally, I know of at least one story of a woman who saw the movie and then left her boyfriend because …
Villarreal: Don’t tell my drama, Mark. No, it wasn’t me.
Olsen: So I think the movie has this power that is, you know, unique even among Sofia’s movies.
Villarreal: My favorite thing has been — I still haven’t seen the film — that I can’t scroll TikTok without people talking about Jacob [Elordi] and the [Elvis] voice that he’s done and also how he’s not still in character with that voice in comparison to Austin Butler. It’s just been so interesting to see the comparisons between their two Elvis Presleys.
Olsen: Well, it’s interesting how the two films, Sofia’s “Priscilla” and Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis,” from last year, they actually complement each other really nicely. They don’t cancel each other out. It’s not a situation where one is better than the other. They really are pursuing different ways of exploring the lives of these very complicated people who are, in their own way, sort of American royalty.
Villarreal: We just need the version of Elvis where he’s still alive even though he’s not alive. I don’t know who’s that’s going to do that, but that’s coming up, I’m sure.
Finnie: Maybe we’ll go to directing until we figure out who’s going to do that one.
Olsen: Well I’ll start. For the L.A. Times’ holiday movie preview, I had the chance to interview Michael Mann and talk about his new film, “Ferrari.” Michael’s a filmmaker who’s just deeply influential on other filmmakers. He makes these stylish and moody explorations of masculinity. “Heat,” “Miami Vice” and now with “Ferrari,” he’s done something that takes it to a whole new place. It’s got this like grand sort of operatic scale. It stars Adam Driver as Enzo Ferrari, the carmaker, and the movie explores his sort of complicated relationship with these two women in his life, played by Penelope Cruz and Shailene Woodley. And there’s just there’s an emotion to this film that I think is really unique. But at the same time, it has these just thrilling car racing sequences.
Villarreal: And there’s one scene that I think will just leave audiences gobsmacked, because I know we should have seen this coming, but I just did not see it coming.
Finnie: Give them a hint.
Villarreal: And I’m not talking about Patrick Dempsey…. What about you, Shawn?
Finnie Justine Triet in “Anatomy of a Fall.” Love, mystery, the ambiguity of the film, I think, is when you win an Oscar in and of itself. She just received the Palme d’Or, which is incredible. But I mean it really explores, where like, get your notebooks out, everybody, when you’re watching this film, because you have to really watch for clues. I don’t want to end it. I don’t want to leave it. I don’t want to tell you what happens. But I will say that you get to see a love on trial and through the perspective of court, through the perspective of her child, through the perspective of people around her. I believe that in the first 30 minutes you’re kind of into the plot. You’re really into it right away. And I feel like “Anatomy of a Fall” is going to going to do something really big. And Justine, I think she has it. I think she has it.
Villarreal: There’s also the film “Zone of Interest” by Jonathan Glazer. You could call it a Holocaust film. But it’s a different take on one for sure. This is an adaptation of a Martin Amis book, the late Martin Amis. It’s this unrelenting sort of glimpse of this Nazi officer who with his family lives next to Auschwitz. And it’s just this chilling and haunting portrait of complicity, like even the way the film starts, which is just like a blank screen and you’re sort of forced to sort of isolate your senses, especially your hearing, because you’ll find that as the movie continues, sound is so important in terms of the eeriness of this family living this somewhat idyllic life at their compound while over the wall, people are being extinguished, it’s just really like a travesty, just hearing the sound, seeing the plumes of smoke, it’s, it’s a lot to take in. And I know the cinematographer [Lukasz Zal] said that Jonathan told him, I wanted to capture “Big Brother” in a Nazi house, which is just such a striking way to sort of picture this. But I don’t know, it was chiling.
Olsen: Yes, and you know, Jonathan Glazer, this is his first movie in 10 years.
Villarreal: Ten years.
Olsen: And worth the wait. And if you can wait just a little longer, we’re going to come back after a short break to talk about actors and best picture.
Villarreal: We’re worth the wait, too.
Greta Lee and Teo Yoo in “Past Lives.”
(Jon Pack/Sundance Institute)
Olsen: Let’s get into talking about the lead performances. Shawn, I want to start with lead actress.
Finnie: Fine, I will go ahead and talk about Fantasia Barrino, because how can we not talk about “The Color Purple”? I feel like we universally, collectively, fell in love with Fantasia during her stint in “American Idol.” But we quickly got to see how her real life wasn’t as glamorous as “American Idol.” And she pulls on that and speaks about that a lot on her press runs for “The Color Purple.” And I think what’s interesting is that she also played Celie in the Broadway play and after that decided she would never do it again. So Oprah called her, director Blitz Bazawule called her, and she was like, “I’m not going to do it.”
Villarreal: How do you say no to Oprah?
Finnie: How do you say no to Oprah? Honestly and truly?
Olsen: Not often.
Finnie: Not often at all. And I find that her decision to come back was a release for her. She speaks about that as well. And she speaks about the stunts where — some of the abuse that Celie plays, typically Celie’s been really subdued. She feels ugly. She does not feel empowered. But she speaks about Celie having imagination. And I feel like she really brought that to the character in this portrayal of it. And honestly, the film is beautiful, the choreography is beautiful. Honestly, I feel like the film, it’s hard. How do you replace Oprah and Whoopi and Steven Spielberg by this version? What about you all?
Villarreal: I’m thinking back to a performance that really stayed with me, which is Greta Lee and “Past Lives.” I mean, I know it feels like it’s been a while since this film has come out, but she gives a really heartfelt and compelling performance as Nora, who is this woman whose past and identity and marriage are sort of upended when she reunites with her childhood sweetheart. And Greta just really has this way of making these intimate moments feel really powerful and overwhelming because her character’s grappling with all sorts of things like who I was, trying to figure out who I am now, and dealing with loss and what is loss and all these big questions that I think a lot of us grapple with on a daily basis. And I didn’t know that director Celine Song was really pulling from a lot of her own experiences here. And I don’t know, I think Greta who I love in in TV shows like “Russian Doll” and “The Morning Show,” if you guys haven’t seen the new season of “The Morning Show” and Greta Lee, specifically her character arc this season, it’s unreal.
Olsen: That’s part of what I think it’s so exciting about “Past Lives.” Greta Lee is someone that you’ve seen in some stuff; she’s usually a supporting character. But to see her able to step up given this big of a role, given the opportunity to just carry a film, I think it’s really exciting.
Finnie: She falls into that character and brings those intimate moments. She brings the audience along and you’re like, “This is me. It’s you, but it’s me.”
Villarreal: That last scene, that final scene, I mean, come on.
Finnie: Hands down. Mark, what about you?
Olsen: I’m going to talk about Emma Stone in “Poor Things.” Emma worked with director Yorgos Lanthimos on “The Favourite” and then reunited on this one. Emma’s back not just as an actor, but as a producer as well. And it’s written by Tony McNamara. It’s an adaptation of a novel by Alasdair Ray. But the story and the movie is just 100% Yorgos Lanthimos in the way that it’s this weird allegory of what makes humans human, but in a way that you wouldn’t really expect. Emma plays a woman, the story is kind of like a riff on the Frankenstein story where, for reasons I won’t reveal here, Emma is going through the stages of development at an accelerated rate. And so you see her develop from seemingly like a childish character to a more fully developed woman at this sort of odd rate of speed. And she just approaches the world with this real lack of guile. And it’s going to be fun to see if the phrase, “Fury is jumping” becomes a popular catchphrase from the movie.
Villarreal: It’s just fun to see her in this weird, quirky era. I mean, she’s in Showtime’s “The Curse.” And just seeing her sort of embracing this side of her is really fun to see.
Olsen: Seeing someone like Emma Stone embrace her inner weirdo is very exciting.
Finnie: And also her as a producer. Can we just clap it up for that? Because honestly, I love seeing her as an actor, but I also love understanding that she’s really a part of the process in a different way. Hands down.
Villarreal: So what do we have next?
Olsen: Do we want to talk about best actor?
Finnie: Mr. Colman Domingo and his portrayal in “Rustin” as Bayard Rustin: He is living and he is living in his time 110%. And I love it because it’s an opportunity for us to understand history, but to understand the people behind the history. We all know about the March on Washington, but how it came together and his role really kind of tied in and centralized the reasoning behind it, but also the execution of it. And I feel like his wittiness, his ability also, he was navigating not only being Black in the civil rights movement, but also being gay and how that was used against him sometimes by his own community. Colman completely embodied that, and he also embodied “The Color Purple.” So the fact that he had time to do both of them, we do need to give it up for him. Just for that.
Olsen: I’ll talk for a bit about Jeffrey Wright in “American Fiction.” Again, an actor that we’ve seen a lot of even just this year. He’s also in “Rustin.” He has a part in Wes Anderson’s “Asteroid City” as well. But here he has a lead role in “American Fiction.” The movie, it’s the debut from writer-director Cord Jefferson, and it’s an adaptation of the novel “Erasure” by Percival Everett. And, you know, Jeffrey Wright just brings this charm and warmth to this character who’s meant to be a bit of a curmudgeon, where he plays someone named Thelonious Ellison, a writer who has really been struggling in his career because he’s always told that his stories, the work he does, isn’t Black enough. And so he, kind of as a joke, a stick in the eye, he writes this story that’s meant to be a parody of stereotypes. And of course, people take it at face value. It becomes the biggest success of his career. And he has to adopt this whole new kind of false persona to promote the story. And just the way Jeffrey pulls off the layers of that performance while also having a romantic story, a family story that’s being told around it, it’s a wonderful such a multi-level performance.
Finnie: And his confliction with success and being honest and authentic was also something really important to do a deep dive into.
Villarreal: Now we have to talk about somebody else who just goes all in with his projects as of late, and that is Bradley Cooper. I mean he, he directed, he co-wrote and he stars in “Maestro,” which is a film about the legendary composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein and his complicated relationship with his wife, who in the film is played by Carey Mulligan. And the transformation is stunning in all respects and capacity. You can really tell that Bradley poured his blood, sweat and tears into this. I mean it’s what, six years in development and five-plus hours every day in hair and makeup before he was directing. It’s just a lot. Again, I’m not doing all that for you guys. And you know, with biopics especially, I know he received some criticism about the prosthetics, but obviously Leonard’s family was supportive of how deep he went into this character. And I think, you know, with biopics, it’s easy to sort of get into the pitfalls of becoming a caricature of the person that you’re representing. But it seems like people are really praising how he captures the sort of emotional core of Leonard.
Olsen: It’s often a challenge in these kind of prosthetic makeup-heavy performances to act around the makeup. And he really does. It seems really natural. I mean, he looks incredible. And I think that he just he brings a passion to this story that I think you can tell that he’s writing, directing, starring, producing — he’s doing all that for a reason and you can feel what it sort of means to him and what he’s trying to get across in the story.
Villarreal: Even the voice work was impressive, especially coming off of something like “A Star Is Born,” which he also directed and starred in with Lady Gaga. But I remembered hearing his voice there and thinking, “Whoa, this isn’t Bradley.” But here in “Maestro,” I was just like, wait, I was listening so much deeper with the voice transformation. OK, now, let’s talk about best picture.
Olsen: I’ll start. Let’s talk about “Oppenheimer.” A three-hour period drama about a nuclear physicist does not sound like the stuff of nearly $1 billion at the box office. And yet, Christopher Nolan obviously is not a normal filmmaker. This movie became part of the Barbenheimer cultural phenomenon and that really helped it out a lot. But I think also there’s just no denying what Christopher Nolan means as a filmmaker. Again, he’s one of these people who currently does not have an Oscar. Seems like in his lifetime, he should end up with at least one Oscar. And so I think this movie is going to be very competitive. You know, it’s got a deep bench ensemble cast. Obviously, the craft and the technicians on this film are just impeccable. And so I think in the category of director, adapted screenplay, and then also, with his wife and fellow producer Emma Thomas, they’re going be competing in best picture.
Villarreal: I’m going to talk about the other half of this and that’s “Barbie.” It truly was like the cinematic event of the year. I don’t remember anything else taking hold like this, but maybe I’m just not well-versed in it.
Olsen: No, there’s been nothing quite like Barbenheimer… It was something everybody was kind of doing and talking about. Yes, it was just wild.
Villarreal: Shirts were made. Posters were made. And with “Barbie” specifically, I feel like this is the first time I heard, especially girlfriends of mine, say that they went to see it multiple times. We want these kinds of films is what I’m saying. And, you know, this is from writer and director Greta Gerwig. She co-wrote this with her husband, Noah Baumbach. And she really delivered a film that beneath its bubble gum exterior explores things like sexism and self-discovery and identity. And then you have on top of that Margot Robbie playing Barbie.
Finnie: Who is a Barbie.
Villarreal: And also producing. And it was just such a thrill to see, just see how much fun the whole cast had in promoting this film. And the way Margot really embraced portraying Barbie, like out on the red carpet every day with the outfits.
Olsen: And she’s still doing it.
Villarreal: She’s still doing it into awards season. And, you know, it just launched all these thinkpieces. So many TikToks breaking down the film in ways that were really fun to see… Can I read you some stats that I think are important? Biggest opening weekend for a film directed by a woman, debuting with $162 million. That’s crazy. And it has sold more than $1.4 billion in ticket sales. And I think that needs to just be reiterated as many times as possible. Women will come to the movies and men will come too to to see movies about women.
Finnie: Love that. I mean I have to go with … Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon.” I mean, listen, it is an important film but it’s also necessary. It really illuminates a dark chapter in American history. The Osage community, we have heard about this story, but I feel like it really kind of contextualized the nuances and the complexities of the characters. I also love the fact that it’s an all-star cast. You can’t really go wrong. I’m so happy for Lily Gladstone. I’m so happy. Leonardo DiCaprio. Robert De Niro. Also, I love to see Scorsese teaming up with [screenwriter] Eric Roth, teaming up with [editor] Thelma [Schoonmaker], teaming up with [cinematographer] Rodrigo [Prieto]. “Killers of the Flower Moon,” get comfortable. You will need to sit through it. But I feel like it’s an important, necessary film that illuminates so much.
Villarreal: Even the conversation it ignited. Just having people talk more about the events and who should be telling these stories and what we need more of. I think it’s important, as always, for sure.
Finnie: I love to see Scorsese at the end of the film, too. I don’t want to ruin it for anybody who hasn’t seen it, but I love seeing him pop up at the end.
Olsen: Well it’s exciting because I think to see a filmmaker of his age and his caliber who still seems to be searching, who’s still pushing himself and in a lot of ways is doing a lot of things that are new in this film… I think that find those final moments of the movie, it’s almost as if he’s saying, “This is too important to me to have anybody else say this except for me.” And so I think that is that is just really exciting to see someone like Martin Scorcese still to be pushing himself the way that he is.
Villarreal: Not to make light of that moment, but someone was saying — and I just couldn’t believe it — that they were in a showing of it, and a lady behind them was so excited because she thought it was Eugene Levy on screen.
Finnie: I mean, we had to end this on a lighter note! … Thank you for watching The Envelope. We’ll be back next week with more movies and more conversations.
