Oscar Nominations with Wesley Morris (The New York Times)

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso

Lemonada Media

Society & Culture, Film Interviews, Tv & Film

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 28 January 2024

⏱️ 80 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Wesley Morris has served as critic at large at The New York Times since 2015, covering film, politics, and pop culture. He joins this week to discuss this year’s Academy Award nominations.

At the top, we discuss the omission of Greta Gerwig from the Best Director category (6:07), former Secretary Clinton on Barbie-gate (10:12), the ‘perversely effective’ nature of Killers of the Flower Moon (16:30), and the ways in which Bradley Cooper’s Maestro upends the traditional biopic (21:45). Wesley then reflects on his early adventures in moviegoing (30:43), the indie film boom of the late ‘90s (35:15), the rise of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (36:23) what the Best Picture nominations of 1988 can tell us about 2023’s slate (38:05), and the erosion of the ‘middle’ across film and culture (41:02).

On the back-half: Todd Haynes’ beguiling new film May December (44:10), Ava DuVernay’s Origin (45:53), the Academy’s fraught relationship to diversity (53:05), the function of Wesley’s work in 2024 (1:05:58) and a reading of his moving, personal review about Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers (1:10:54).

For questions, comments, or to join our mailing list, reach me at [email protected]. This conversation was recorded at Spotify Studios.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, this is Sam. If you enjoy our interviews with writers and artists on Talk Easy,
0:04.7	then I'd recommend checking out the podcast, Missing Pages. Hosted by acclaimed literary critic and author Beth Ann
0:11.6	Patrick, Missing Pages investigates the biggest hot button topics in the book
0:16.2	world today with the help of special guests like New York Times Best Selling Author
0:21.2	Jody Pekle and publisher weeklies Jim Miliet.
0:24.8	Produced by the People at the Podgolomerate,
0:27.0	Missing Pages explores everything from the Insta Frame of Colleen Hoover
0:31.2	to the rise of book bands across America to the lucrative culture of non-fiction
0:36.3	ghost writing. As both the Washington Post and The Guardian praise, missing pages is a must listen. So if you'd like to check it out you can follow
0:44.8	missing pages on Apple Podcast or wherever you like to listen. Pushkin. This is talk easy. I'm San Fr writer and fellow podcaster Wesley Morris.
1:36.0	Since 2015 Morris has served as the critic at large from the New York Times
1:41.0	where he's also co-hosted the popular podcast, Still Processing, alongside Jay Wertham.
1:47.0	While the show has been on hiatus, Wesley has continued publishing, searching, and often moving essays that explore the intersection
1:55.4	of race and pop culture.
1:57.9	His work was first awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 2012 during his tenure at the Boston Globe and then again most
2:05.3	recently in 2021 at the height of the pandemic. But what I think makes his work
2:10.7	special and you'll hear it a fair bit in this conversation is not only
2:16.2	his ability to connect the dots or to see the bigger picture but to do so in real time with readers and listeners alike.
2:25.0	Wesley doesn't come to the page or the microphone with the puzzle pre-assembled.
2:30.0	The pieces of the story, the theory are always there.
2:34.3	Yes, but the road to a good idea, the discovery process, which can often be vulnerable
2:40.3	and vexing, is one he invites us into with wit, wisdom, and warmth.
	...

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