CineDrunk: Favorite Actress Showdown - Part Three

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The finale has arrived! Who will emerge victorious as CineDrunk's favorite actress?

If you missed our previous podcasts in this series, check out Part 1 and Part 2. You can find the all-important Gin Gin Mule recipe in Part 1, which is sure to enhance the listening experience.

In this episode, we pit the actresses we like to call Blockbuster Beauties (i.e., those who can or could open a movie/command a good paycheck, and/or have been part of a franchise at some point) against the Indie Queens (reliable actresses known for choosing interesting work).

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To recap our criteria: each actress must be alive, still (more-or-less) working in cinema, and have at least one Oscar nomination to her credit. Keep in mind this showdown was recorded in one sitting, so we're super tipsy by this point. Cheers, and thanks for listening!

BLOCKBUSTER BEAUTIES

Sandra Bullock
Angelina Jolie
Michelle Pfeiffer
Natalie Portman
Julia Roberts
Sigourney Weaver
Reese Witherspoon
Renee Zellweger

INDIE QUEENS

Juliette Binoche
Patricia Clarkson
Toni Collette
Viola Davis
Laura Dern
Laura Linney
Frances McDormand
Marisa Tomei

CineDrunk: Favorite Actress Showdown - Part Two

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In the second part of our showdown to determine CineMunch's favorite actress, we dig into the best the UK has to offer (lovingly called our Ol' Brits bracket) and the cinematic treasures of Hollywood (the American Classics). If you missed part one, take a listen and find out who emerged victorious in our Oscar Faves and New Wave rounds and will continue to the finals. And check out the recipe for our corresponding drink: the Gin Gin Mule.

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To recap our criteria: each actress must be alive, still (more-or-less) working in cinema, and have at least one Oscar nomination to her credit.

THE OL' BRITS

Judi Dench
Sally Hawkins
Helen Mirren
Maggie Smith
Imelda Staunton
Tilda Swinton
Emma Thompson
Naomi Watts

AMERICAN CLASSICS

Annette Bening
Sally Field
Jane Fonda
Jodie Foster
Whoopi Goldberg
Holly Hunter
Susan Sarandon
Lily Tomlin

CineDrunk: Favorite Actress Showdown - Part One

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CineDrunk: Favorite Actress Showdown - Part One

We here at CineMunch love actresses. Probably more than we love movies themselves. Possibly more than we love the Oscars, cheese, or our cats, Tilda & Scout, but let's not get too carried away here. In CineDrunk's latest podcast, we come out as proud actressexuals (a term popularized by the incredible Nathaniel R. from The Film Experience). 

We could've spent an eternity rhapsodizing on and obsessing over our favorite cinematic ladies, so we needed to set some boundaries and narrow the field. The criteria for our epic (three-part!) showdown was as follows: 
     1. The actress must still be alive (sorry, Bette Davis - we love you!).
     2. They must still be working in cinema (apologies to you, Angela Lansbury!).
     3. They must be Oscar nominated (one day soon, Scarlett Johansson!).

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CineDrunk: Guilty Pleasures Showdown - Our One-Year Anniversary Podcast

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What?! It's CineDrunk's first birthday? Oh my god--lights, camera, and us without a stitch of makeup on!

But the rumors are true: it's been (more than!) a year since our show first landed on an MP3 player near you. Thank you for all your support! We couldn't crawl out of bed, pour ourselves a drink, and talk endlessly about movies without you.

If you haven't listened to CineDrunk before, there's never been a better time to start. We're celebrating our one-year with a showdown of our favorite guilty pleasures. No recipes this time; we went the guilty route on those, too. So pour yourself a vodka Red Bull and give us a chance. We really do mean no harm.

And now, in random order, our 32 guilty pleasures (with apologies to the many titles we overlooked):

Showgirls, Deep Impact, Spice World, Con Air, Sister Act 2, Powder, Sphere, Outrageous Fortune, Mallrats, Never Been Kissed, Snake Eyes, Heart & Souls, Volcano, Practical Magic, The Three Musketeers, Selena, The Net, Face/Off, The Cutting Edge, Clue, Waterworld, Dante's Peak, The Craft, Troop Beverly Hills, Drop Dead Gorgeous, Air Force One, Straight Talk, Cruel Intentions, Grease 2, Romy & Michele's High School Reunion, Heartbreakers, Six Days Seven Nights

Let us know what movies you hate to love in the comments below! And subscribe to CineDrunk on iTunes so you never miss an episode.

CineDrunk: Final 2014 Oscar Predictions

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Oscar weekend is here! Listen in as we drunkenly babble on about our predictions and personal favorites in all 24 Oscar categories. With little consensus and lots of unpredictability, it's going to be an exciting year!

 
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CineDrunk: Romantic Comedy Showdown

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Credit: Laura Sant for Saveur

Credit: Laura Sant for Saveur

Before Saint Valentine returns from beyond the grave to make us fall in love and buy greeting cards and feel all warm and fuzzy (two days left until no one's favorite holiday!), it's time to engage in some cinematic bloodsport.

That's right, it's time for another showdown (to the death, naturally), this one for the title of Best Romantic Comedy.

Join us for an episode full of romantic highs and lows and more than a few marital spats. And if you listen in on iTunes and like what you hear, spread the love (get it?) by rating the podcast. This will help our visibility immensely. Thank you, and enjoy! 

Elderflower Old Fashioned
adapted from Saveur

2½ oz. bourbon
½ oz. St. Germain
2–3 dashes Angostura bitters or 1-2 dashes      
     blood orange bitters
Strip of lemon zest, for garnish

Fill a martini shaker or large glass with ice. Add bourbon, St. Germain, and bitters and stir until very chilled. Strain into a rocks glass with a large cube of ice. Garnish with lemon zest.

ROUND ONE (Winner in bold)

#1: City Lights (1931) vs. #32: Silver Linings Playbook (2012)

#16: Clueless (1995) vs. #17: Chasing Amy (1997)

#9: Moonstruck (1987) vs. #24: Notting Hill (1999)

#8: The Princess Bride (1987) vs. #25: Bridget Jones's Diary (2001)

#4: The Philadelphia Story (1940) vs. #29: Knocked Up (2007)

#13: Sleepless in Seattle (1993) vs. #20: The Wedding Singer (1998)

#12: Groundhog Day (1993) vs. #21: There's Something About Mary (1998)

#5: The African Queen (1951) vs. #28: The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005)

#2: It Happened One Night (1934) vs. #31: (500) Days of Summer (2009)

#15: While You Were Sleeping (1995) vs. #18: My Best Friend's Wedding (1997)

#10: When Harry Met Sally (1989) vs. #23: 10 Things I Hate About You (1999)

#7: Annie Hall (1977) vs. #26: Love Actually (2005)

#3: His Girl Friday (1940) vs. #30: Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)

#14: Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) vs. #19: As Good As It Gets (1997)

#11: Pretty Woman (1990) vs. #22: You've Got Mail (1998)

#6: The Apartment (1960) vs. #27: 13 Going on 30 (2004)

Also listen and subscribe via iTunes.

CineDrunk: The CineMunchies and Our Favorite Movies of 2014

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We know you love lists. We know we love lists. You know you love lists. It's time to roll out the lists.

Drink(s) in hand(s), we celebrate 2014 in our latest podcast, and a stellar year at the cinema it was. Each of your hosts has a Top 10, which we count down in Part 1 of our show. In Part 2, we award the first annual CineMunchies, our end-of-the-year superlatives featuring such categories as Best Performance by an Elderly British Person and The "I Wasn't Sure You Had That in You" Award.

Leading up to this recording, the anticipation had us on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

But we managed to keep the conversation civil and the drinks simple. After all, it's a celebration of our individual favorites, not a debate.

A special shout out to our Best Wine of 2014 (which is another way of saying Best Wine Under $20 That Tastes Good With Cheese): the 2013 Celler Bàrbara Forés Blanc. And our drink of choice for the evening? Boozy hot cocoa.

Peppermint-Spiked Hot Chocolate
Here's a drink even your teenager can make! Er... Step 1: Make the best hot chocolate you know how to make. Step 2: Add several generous shots of the cheapest peppermint schnapps you can buy. Step 3: Enjoy!

Thanks for joining us to look back on Film Year 2014! Cheers!

CineDrunk: Into the Woods

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Into the Woods. Remember that? We do, and though it may not make our best-of-the-year lists, we welcomed such a smart, entertaining film adaptation of one of Broadway's best. Listen in to our latest podcast, where we debate the merits of this Disney-fication of Sondheim.

Like Into the Woods, we enjoy our sweet fairy tales with a shot of tragedy, so what better drink than the Black Forest Manhattan to accompany our discussion? Recipe below:

Black Forest Manhattan
adapted from Saveur
makes one cocktail

1 tsp. cocoa powder
1 tsp. superfine sugar
3 oz whiskey
4 dashes chocolate bitters
1 pitted sour cherry, to garnish

For the cherry syrup:
1 cup sour cherry juice, plus more for rim of glass
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup kirsch (cherry-flavored liqueur)

1. To make the cherry syrup: In a saucepan, bring cherry juice and granulated sugar to a boil, then remove from heat and allow to cool. Stir in kirsch and chill.

2. In a small bowl, mix the cocoa powder and superfine sugar. Pour the mixture onto a plate. Pour some cherry juice into a wide, shallow bowl. Dip the rim of a martini glass into the juice, then dip it into the cocoa mixture to create a thin chocolate ring.

3. In a cocktail shaker 3/4 filled with ice, add whiskey, 3/4 ounces cherry syrup, and bitters. Shake vigorously until well-chilled. Pour into rimmed martini glass. Garnish with cherry.

Also listen and subscribe via iTunes.

2014 Oscar Nominations Reactions

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2014 Oscar Nominations Reactions

They've arrived! Nominations morning is to Oscar nerds what Christmas morning is to an optimistic young child. Both enthusiastically hop out of bed in a world where all things are theoretically possible and everything is awesome (or not if you're The Lego Movie, apparently). Though, as always, the Academy is like the distant relative who never looked at your Christmas wish list and ends up giving you things you don't actually want and forgetting to get you some of the things you wanted most.

In the end, a Wes Anderson movie that was released last March and a daring artistic vision from Alejandro G. Iñárritu lead the pack with nine nominations for The Grand Budapest Hotel and Birdman, respectively - and our frontrunner is still probably an intimate film by Richard Linklater that began production over a decade ago. The Academy may have made some poor choices, but those facts are still kind of incredible when you stand back from the noise and ponder that that is what this year's race has boiled down to. Though The Imitation Game might still render all that uniqueness moot and barrel right down the middle towards a consensus victory. We'll know soon enough.

The CineDrunk crew hashed out our initial thoughts in a brief podcast below, recorded right after the nominations were announced. If you'd like to see what my final predictions looked like click here. Check out the full list of 2014 Oscar nominees and commentary after the jump!

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CineDrunk: The Road to Oscars 2014 - The Golden Globes

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That smell in the air, of faintly ego-driven but all-around giddy anticipation? It's awards prognostication season. And it's in full swing.

In our latest podcast, we analyze the Golden Globe nominees ahead of this Sunday's broadcast (Amy Poehler and Tina Fey hosting again!) and next Thursday's Oscar nominations. You'll hear our personal favorites, as well as our predictions for both the Globes and the Oscars. You'll also learn which one of us has a killer Estonian accent.

To honor the glut of gingers who entered the Oscar fray this year (Julianne Moore, Eddie Redmayne, Jessica Chastain, etc.) we sipped on the following:

Ginger Gold Rush

1½ oz ginger liqueur
1 oz Bourbon
½ oz fresh-squeezed lemon juice
Brandied cherry

Place cherry in bottom of martini glass. Shake ginger liqueur, Bourbon and lemon juice in a cocktail shaker over ice. Strain into the glass. Sip or slurp a little, and channel your inner ginger.

Because we just can't get enough awards talk, this podcast is a two-parter. We've noted important time marks below so you can skip to whatever category tickles your fancy. Happy listening!

PART 1

00:00 - Intros and Ginger Gold Rush description
03:00 - Best Supporting Actor
08:44 - Best Supporting Actress
18:12 - Best Director
25:42 - Best Screenplay
31:41 - Best Foreign Language Film
33:32 - Best Animated Feature
35:12 - Best Original Score & Best Original Song

PART 2

00:00 - Best Actor in a Musical/Comedy
08:41 - Best Actor in a Drama & Best Actor Oscar prospects
17:58 - Best Actress in a Musical/Comedy
22:28 - Best Actress in a Drama & Best Actress Oscar prospects
33:01 - Best Picture Musical/Comedy
37:50 - Best Picture Drama & Best Picture Oscar prospects


Also listen and subscribe via iTunes.