This article previously featured in The Tribune's Weekend section on February 24.
The Oscars will be handed out this
weekend – and a whole host of podcasts are busily making their
predictions as to who will win, and focusing on which of the
movies
up for gongs you should be seeing. With that in mind, I donned
my
headphones to prepare to hand out my own share of bouquets and
brickbats.
Playback, by Variety
Seeing as they host an Oscars party,
you would think Variety would be the place to go for the
essential
pre-Oscars podcast, and Playback, with Kristopher Tapley, has a
pretty good reputation... so it was with some surprise that I
found
this the weakest of the shows that I listened to this week.
Let’s start with the awful intro
music, and add on top of that the way the stream kept stuttering
all
the way through – there’s a download option and, trust me, if
you’re going to listen to the show, don’t even try to stream it
on the site, you won’t make it to the end.
But on top of that, the discussion
of
the Oscars is pretty non-commital. There’s a lack of great
passion
in the discussion, and not a lot of comparison of the strengths
of
the different Oscar candidates. Indeed, it’s almost as if
there’s
a deliberate lack of commitment to picking who will win, other
than a
loose acceptance that La La Land and Moonlight are the
frontrunners.
It soon veers off into red carpet
stories, which it has to be said aren’t the greatest red carpet
stories anyway, and a half-hearted discussion about who will
talk
about Trump during the ceremony. All told, there’s just a lack
of
punch to this show.
The best part by far though is the
interview with Moonlight director Barry Jenkins – that’s well
worth listening to, but the rest? You could skip without missing
too
much.
Pop Culture Confidential
Far better is Pop Culture
Confidential,
in which host Christina Jeurling Birro and guest Sasha Stone go
through in real detail the potential winners of the Oscars.
There’s an excellent discussion on
how the ballot system works and how it can affect the results,
with
split ballots sometimes leading to surprising winners, such as
when
Adrien Brody won the Oscar for The Pianist.
Again, La La Land is the hot
favourite
for many, many awards this year – Emma Stone is suggested to be
a
certainty for best actress - but the analysis does show that
there
seems to be pretty good prospects for both Moonlight and Lion
too. In
fact, from the discussion, it seems that Moonlight might just be
a
sly bet for the best picture, despite the Hollywood love-in that
is
La La Land.
There’s a keen analysis of how the
awards leading up to the Oscars can affect voting for the
biggest
gong of them all – and thoughts on how the changing demographic
of
the Academy, to introduce more people of colour on the voting
side,
might have an impact.
The host and guest clearly know
their
stuff, the production of the podcast is top notch, and this is
absolutely a show to put on as you start your Oscar party and
wait
for the big event itself to get started.
Dorking Out
Self-confessed dorks Chris Smith and
Sonia Mansfield covers all manner of geekish subjects in their
podcast, but they are both also movie lovers, so for their
latest
podcast they make their Oscar predictions.
Now, there are a lot of podcasts
going
through and making their predictions – but these two know their
stuff and give a good analysis for each of their picks. What’s
nice
about this show is the amount of time they spend discussing some
of
the lesser known categories, and analysing what might scoop the
Oscar
for such things as sound editing or short movie live action.
Often,
podcasts gloss over such things because, well, the hosts aren’t
really that interested in those categories – but these guys take
their dorking out seriously!
Again, Moonlight gets some strong
support here – though La La Land is very much likely to pick up
a
whole range of Oscars, with the hosts pointing out such things
as
costumes and production design as likely awards for that film to
scoop, beyond the big winners. Emma Stone is
getting
a lot of support for best actress, Viola Davis is suggested here
as a
strong contender for best supporting actress.
There’s not long to wait now – so
it’ll soon be time to find out who walks away smiling in the
city
of stars.
Website:
http://www.dorkingoutshow.com
Got any suggestions for podcasts to feature in the review column? Leave a message below or drop me a note on Twitter, @AlteredInstinct.
No comments:
Post a Comment