"God's Country" had its world premiere at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, where it received positive notices for its direction, writing, and lead performance from Emmy Award-winning actress Thandiwe Newton ("Westworld"). Director and co-writer Jullian Higgins was kind enough to spend some time talking with me about the film's themes, working with Thandiwe, and more. We hope you will check out the film, which is opening in theaters this weekend, and take a listen down below. Thank you, and enjoy!
 
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Interview With "God's Country" Director/Writer, Jullian Higgins

THIS IS A PREVIEW PODCAST. NOT THE FULL REVIEW. Please check out the full podcast review on our Patreon Page by subscribing over at - https://www.patreon.com/NextBestPicture

As we attempt to catch up with all of the Oscar-nominated films, one delightful surprise was the inclusion of Pablo Berger's sweet, dialogue-free animated film "Robot Dreams" which had its world premiere at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival and played at various other festivals before qualifying for this year's Academy Awards with a limited theatrical run. It will be released officially in the States on May 31st by NEON. You probably already heard our interview with Berger, but now find out from me, Alyssa Christian, Josh Parham, Dan Bayer, and guest Carlos Aguilar what we thought of the film. Please tune in as we discuss the animation, story, its awards season chances, and more in our SPOILER-FILLED review! Thank you for all your support, and enjoy!

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"Robot Dreams"

On Episode 1, we start our 2016 Awards Season Talk recapping the latest news from the festival circuit and cap it off with a review of this week's release "The Light Between Oceans."

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Introducing The Next Best Picture Podcast - 00:48
Awards Discussion - 3:43
"The Light Between Oceans" Review - 44:20

Episode 1 - Introducing The Next Best Picture Podcast & "The Light Between Oceans"

This week, we ride to Valhalla, shiny and chrome, alongside guest host Matthew Krol of The Only Podcast About Movies in a new segment we're calling 'For Your Reconsideration'. Fury Road did not win Best Picture, but our hosts have some thoughts on that accounting error and make a strong case that of all the films released in 2015, George Miller's action opus is the best of the bunch. Exquisite action, high octane stunts, a shockingly deep and feminist story and some of the best music of the last decade: Fury Road has all of this and more.

Witness us!

Drop a line at oscarwatchpodcast@gmail.com and be sure to find us on social media @oscarwatchpod. Like, subscribe and review on iTunes, it really does help us get the word out.

Next week, we look closer.

Stephen Buja's Album

Mad Max Fury Road (2015)

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 happy for; and even better, so few things to be mad about! So, be sure to Get Out and read it all in The Post, and don't forget to Call Me By Your Name (hint, it is I, Tonya) and this may seem like the Darkest Hour, but i assure you that the Shape of Water is not, in fact, a Phantom Thread. All that, montages, Kimmel, the best speeches, the most memorable moments. Hollywood knows how to party and there is no bigger or brighter hootenanny than the one, the only...

The Oscars.

Listen in, and we return to our regularly scheduled program soon.

The 90th Academy Awards Recap

For Episode 90, (We're now the same age as Oscar!!) myself, Will Mavity, Josh Parham and Danilo Castro discuss our favorite movies and memories pertaining to Mother's Day, discuss the polls related to "Deadpool 2," what's going on at Cannes, answer your fan questions, and give our thoughts on the trailers for "Searching" and "The Predator."

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Episode 90 - Mother's Day, Favorite Non MCU-Marvel Films & The "Searching" Trailer

***This Incredibles 2 Review has a Spoiler Section***
The first (36) minutes are spoiler FREE.  Then we play some spoiler music & dive into the plot.

Non-Spoiler Section for The Incredibles 2

Production Profile (Bird, Hunter, Long Development)  - 3:22
Movie Specs (Record Box Office + Critics) - 10:51
Expectations (Raised by the Brand of Pixar?) - 14:26
Theater Going Experience (Giggly Kids) - 18:14
Production Values (Sight to Sound) - 21:43
Performances (Our Favorite Characters) - 26:52
Best/Worst Scenes (Jack Jack is funny) - 31:27
Oscar Lens (Best Animated Feature Plus?) - 32:16
Final Nonspoiler Thoughts (Watch or Don’t) - 34:08

Spoiler Warning Music Break - 35:25

Spoiler-Filled Section for The Incredibles 2

Carryovers/Worst Scenes (A Villain Problem) - 36:35
Best Scenes (The Action Sequences) - 43:29
More Best Scenes (The Jack Jack fight) - 51:54
Final Final Thoughts (And Grades) - 54:15

SOCIAL MEDIA AND COMMENT ON OUR ITUNES!  - 56:58


The Incredibles 2 is breaking box office records for animated films and putting up numbers closer to MCU films.  Our production profile breaks down the cast & crew, the original film, and the production story behind the sequel.  Then we discuss some of those early box office numbers and the high marks from critics and audiences alike in our overview of the movie specs.

The Mikes took another field trip to the movies, and we share our theater going story.  We also discuss whether or not the Disney Pixar brand should raise our expectations, or do we lower them for animated films.  Then we dive into our reviews of the production values including the eye popping animation and nostalgic musical score.

These characters are fun and fantastic, and we share our favorites while also mentioning which storylines may have fallen a bit flat as we do a brief non-spoiler review of the script.  Then we glance over some best & worst scenes before offering our Oscar Lens on where the film may get nominated come awards season.

The spoiler music plays, and we open up with some of our worst scenes, but fear not.  We come back around for a lot more praise for the film’s action and comedy as we break down all those best scenes we alluded to in the non-spoiler section.  We end with our final grades and describe how we got there, putting a bookend on the two sections of the pod.  How do our expectations & particular tastes affect the takeaways from this kind of movie?  Tune in and fine out!

The Incredibles 2 is the latest in a long line of 2018 films we’ve reviewed as movie events.  Check out our episodes on The Cloverfield Paradox, Black Panther, A Quiet Place, Avengers: Infinity War, Deadpool 2, Solo: A Star Wars Story, and Hereditary to catch up on possible Oscar contenders.  We’ve also given some way to early predictions for next year’s award season (ep 53), we’ve reviewed Cannes, Sundance, and SXSW in ep. 71, and we’ve previewed March & April (52), May & June (67), and we will preview July & August in our next episode.

Our Oscar Off-Season rolls on as we’ve also reviewed the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, and we’ve mined Oscar history for some fun retrospectives including 6 Best Original Song halfisodes, the 1989 Best Original Screenplay, and 1991 Best Actress races.  There’s a ton of fun movie talk.  So do check out our massive catalog of episodes.

Chat with us on social media, and let us know your thoughts on The Incredibles 2. We’re Mike, Mike, and Oscar on Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, and Gmail.  We’re at MMandOscar on Twitter.  Find our show on iTunes, Soundcloud, Stitcher, etc…, and please leave us a positive review if you enjoy our stuff. As always, thank you for listening.  When reality sucks, watch movies with us.

The Incredibles 2 Oscar Sprint Profile - New Oscars Race, Same Super Family - Ep 78

Kim Nguyen is a Canadian director and writer who gained a lot of attention for his Academy Award nominated foreign language film "War Witch" in 2012. He has made a few films since then but his latest "The Hummingbird Project" is his most accessible and biggest yet, featuring an A-list cast that includes Jesse Eisenberg, Alexander Skarsgard & Salma Hayek. The 45 year old filmmaker was kind enough to sit with me for a few minutes to talk about his latest film.

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Interview With "The Hummingbird Project" Director/Writer, Kim Nguyen

Quarter 2 of the movie calendar comes to a close as we dive into the Tenet news, 15 non-spoiler movie reviews, our top performances & films of the last 3 months, and some all-time stats on April, May, & June Oscar Noms + our favorite Q2 Best Picture Winners.

OSCARS 2021 NEWS:
Tenet Delayed…Again - 2:00
Golden Globes, BAFTAs, Indys All Move - 3:16
TIFF Will Be “Streamlined” - 3:56
Netflix Circles Trial of the Chicago Seven - 5:50

2020 Q2 MOVIE REVIEWS:
Miss Juneteenth - 11:21
Babyteeth - 13:40
Spelling the Dream - 16:55
7500 - 20:16
Premature - 22:28
The Vast of Night - 24:53
Time to Hunt - 29:07
The Hunt - 30:50
Becky - 32:42
The Invisible Man 35:25
Athlete A - 39:05
The Other Lamb - 42:20
And We Go Green - 45:07

QUARTER 2 OSCAR SUPERLATIVES:
What We’ve Covered From Q2 Recap - 47:21
Best Actor - 48:31
Best Actress - 51:12
Best Doc Feature - 52:52
Our Number 1 Fave Q2 2020 Films - 55:38

ALL TIME Q2 MOVIE OSCARS STATS:
How Many Q2 Movies Have Been Nominated At All Past Decade? - 57:10
Every Q2 Best Picture Winner (+ why?) - 58:35
Our Personal Faves - 1:05:50

Your Homework/PLEASE LEAVE US 5*’S - 1:09:38
What’s Next From MMO/Words of Wisdom - 1:10:45

This is a special episode of Oscar Race Checkpoint, where we discuss Quarter 2 of the film year 2020. If you enjoyed this show, do go back to our Oscar Race Checkpoint playlist on Soundcloud to find our overview of Quarter 1 with Ryan McQuade of InSession Film & Awards Circuit.

In this episode, we begin with some of the latest news on Tenet. Plus, we chat about the new TIFF format and if The Trial Of The Chicago 7 should be a Netflix film.

Then as a centerpiece, we review 13 films that one Mike or the other hasn’t had the chance to cover yet, including Miss Juneteenth, Babyteeth, Spelling The Dream, 7500, Premature, The Vast Of Night, Time To Hunt, The Hunt, Becky, The Invisible Man, Athlete A, The Other Lamb, + And We Go Green (before adding 2 more reviews of The Painter and the Thief & The Half Of It in the next segment). All these reviews are predominantly non-spoilers. HOWEVER, we can’t help but talk about a mid-movie scene in The Invisible Man.

To close out the show, we dive into a superlatives segment, where we talk about our favorite performances & films from the Quarter before enjoying a historical segment. Here, we recap some stats on how many Oscar nominated films have come from Q2 in the last 10 years. Then we discuss all 16 Best Picture Winners from the quarter and pick our favorites.

If you’re enjoying the show, do please take a moment to leave us a 5 star rating on Apple Podcasts, and also, do please listen to our words of wisdom and check out Next Best Picture as we congratulate them on their latest milestone.

As always, we want to know what you think. We’re at MMandOscar on Twitter, and we are on Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, and Gmail. You can subscribe / rate / review / like / share / & listen to us on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Google Play, Tune In, Spotify, and just about wherever you might listen. We’re Mike, Mike, & Oscar, and we’re making awards season year round, without the stuffiness. Thanks for listening.

Reviewing The Films + Oscars HIstory of Q2 - ORC 6/27/20

A podcast by NextBestPicture.com that reviews the latest film releases and discusses various topics within the world of film and the awards race.

Interview With "God's Country" Director/Writer, Jullian Higgins

The Next Best Picture Podcast

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