387 – Ain’t Them Bodies Saints

This Had Oscar Buzz

Joe and Chris

Tv & Film

4.8 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 13 April 2026

⏱️ 127 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As maverick director David Lowery returns to theatres this week with Mother Mary, we’re looking back at his 2013 film Ain’t Them Bodies Saints. The film follows two Texas lovers played by Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara torn apart by a showdown with local police, where he accepts guilt and jail time when she shoots a police officer. The film is an unpacking of romantic outlaw myths that caused a stir at the Sundance Film Festival and helped establish Lowery as one of the most unpredictable directors working today.

This episode, we talk about the influence of Terrence Malick’s Badlands on the film and Lowery’s subversion of story expectations. We also discuss Mara’s filmography between Oscar nominations, Ben Foster’s emergence into character roles, and beloved cinematographer Bradford Young.

Topics also include the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, Santa’s WikiFeet rating, and Chris’s favorite Huppert performance.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Oh, wrong house.
0:12.8	No, the right house.
0:13.6	I didn't get that.
0:14.9	We want to talk to Mel and Heck.
0:15.8	Millen Hack and Chris. I'm from Canada water.
0:27.6	Dick Pooh.
0:29.6	Dick Poop I dreamed about you again last night
0:44.4	I hold your face in my mind
0:47.3	I think about your hair getting longer
0:49.7	think about your belly getting bigger
0:52.0	I think about our baby girl.
1:01.3	I shot someone.
1:03.4	I think I shot someone.
1:07.3	It's going to be okay.
1:08.7	All you're going to do is wait for.
1:28.5	Hello and welcome to the This Had Oscar Best podcast, the only podcast that Jennifer Ely makes herself a risky test subject to come and see. Every week on This Had Oscar Buzz, we'll be talking about a different movie that once upon a time had Lofty Academy Award aspirations. But for some reason or another, it all went wrong. The Oscar hopes died and we're here to perform the autopsy. I am your host, Chris Fyle, and I'm here, as always, with the Holy Saint of Badiadi-A-Di-O-D-Jo Reid. Touch the Saints. Touch all of this Saints. Right off the top, what does this title mean? It doesn't mean anything. And I read on, as I'm, you know, researching for
1:45.5	this movie, that it's, it's, the title comes from David Lowry, mishearing the lyrics to a song.
1:53.8	Great. Which I'm like, that's kind of perfect. So it's, it's gibberish. It means nothing. It sounds profound.
2:03.9	It sounds, it's one of those titles where if you are not inclined to like this movie,
2:08.3	you can be like, that title is so pretentious.
2:11.4	And if you are inclined to like this movie, you still have to be like, that title.
2:16.5	The title, though.
	...

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