Extra Pulp

Extra Pulp: Screen Time columnists talk the Oscars

Talia Trackim | Digital Design Director

Screen Time columnists Jenny Bourque and Patrick Gunn react to this year's Academy Awards in the first episode of "Extra Pulp," Pulp's new podcast.

HALEY ROBERTSON: Hi everyone! Welcome to the first episode of Pulp’s new podcast series, Extra Pulp. Throughout the semester we’ll be talking all things entertainment, food and help you plan your weekend with our weekly events guide. I’m your co-host, Haley Robertson.

DIANA RIOJAS: And I’m your co-host, Diana Riojas. Before we get started, let’s talk about the Oscars. It made some history last night — “Roma” won Best Foreign (Language) Film and was the first movie from Mexico to receive this achievement. And Ruth Carter was the first black costume designer to take home an Oscar.

ROBERTSON: Today we have Screen Time columnists Jenny Bourque and Patrick Gunn to discuss the wins, snubs and surprises from last night’s awards. Welcome!

GUNN: Yeah, thanks for having us!



BOURQUE: Thank you!

ROBERTSON: Alright, what did you think of last night’s awards?

GUNN: It went mostly as-expected, the awards part of it. I was a little surprised to see Olivia Colman winning, but she totally deserved it for her performance in “The Favourite,” and “The Favourite” itself is great. I really liked her speech. I thought it was really emotional to hear her talk about her family and it’s just kind of hilarious how she’s just like “Well, I hope my kids are watching because hey, this isn’t going to happen ever again.”

So it was really nice, that moment. The moment with Spike Lee and Samuel Jackson when Spike Lee just jumped up into his arms before he won, and just seeing Samuel Jackson’s reaction. Also, looking back at pictures, Brie Larson who’s reading the awards, the reaction shots of her are just hilarious.

It’s really nice to see “Roma” doing well, pretty much what I expected, I’m really just happy to see “First Man” take the Visual Effects because it’s a beautiful film and deserves some recognition.

BOURQUE: I think “The Favourite” was snubbed for Best Picture, for sure. I think it belonged to  almost any other film on the list than “Green Book.” I was also thrilled and surprised that Olivia Colman took home the gold for “The Favourite.”

It was nice to see — I love watching the stars kind of react to each other winning and seeing Emma Stone sort of cry in the crowd. And Olivia Colman in tears during her speech, thanking Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone for co-starring with her.

And “Roma” for best director was really great. I know Alfonso Cuarón has won twice, last time for “Gravity.” So it’s always great to see him win.

RIOJAS: And for you guys, what did you think about the Oscars being host-less?

GUNN: You know, going into it, I didn’t expect it to be very good. Usually, the host is the person that the people connect to, they’re the reason why a lot of people watch the awards in the first place. But actually, it flowed very well.

I thought that not having a host coming in and saying “hey, here, let’s go get people pizza, let’s take a selfie, or let’s go to the movie theater and just throw food at people” — it made it flow a little better, you just focus on the awards, a lot of the presenters just go and do their own thing. Like with Amy Poehler and Tina Fey and Maya Rudolph, at the start of the show, they were perfect people to just start and just talk for a couple minutes.

The only good thing about “Bohemian Rhapsody” being nominated for anything was seeing Queen get more love because while they may not be amazing producers, they know how to make good music. I thought it actually went a lot better than I thought and maybe something they reconsider in the future.

BOURQUE: Yeah I thought it went surprisingly well. But I don’t understand why the Oscars just couldn’t just replace Kevin Hart. I don’t understand why it was either him or nobody. But, it did surprisingly go well — I think in the future, they might benefit from having Amy Poehler, Tina Fey and Maya Rudolph host the whole thing because they’re incredible every time they show up. But at the end of the day, it was better than Anne Hathaway and James Franco.

RIOJAS: Any hot takes about the fashion we saw last night?

GUNN: I’m not really a fashion critic, so all I can think of is Rachel Weisz’s looked like plastic. That’s really the only thing I could think of right now — red trash bag.

BOURQUE: Yeah, I thought the costumes were interesting this year. It made me look forward to the Met Gala, the camp theme that’s coming up. I’m interested to see what the celebrities will do with that and it seems they’ve already kinda dipped into that this year at the Oscars.

ROBERTSON: In case you’re still catching up on all of the Oscar-nominated films, University Union is screening “If Beale Street Could Talk” this weekend at the HBC Gifford Auditorium.

RIOJAS: Also kicking off the weekend, on Thursday night, is the Drag Show Finals, which will be hosted by Shea Coulee and Pearl Liaison and will feature four final contestants: Kalinda Kelly, Donna Tendo, Helga Felga and Daphne.

ROBERTSON: There are also a few very special guests coming to campus on Friday night: comedians Vanessa Bayer, John Early and Sabrina Jalees will perform in Goldstein Auditorium. The comedy night is hosted by University Union and tickets are available at the Schine Box Office.

RIOJAS: Orange After Dark will host Trivia Night on Friday, followed by their annual midterm stressbuster on Saturday evening.

ROBERTSON: This is also the final week to catch Syracuse Stage’s production of “Native Gardens” and SU Drama’s production of “We are Proud to Present…” at the Syracuse Stage/SU Drama Theater Complex on East Genesee Street.

RIOJAS: If you’re looking to get off campus this weekend, Steve Martin and Martin Short will take the Landmark Theatre on Saturday night, too.

ROBERTSON: Wrapping up the weekend is the annual Chili Bowl Festival on Sunday at Thornden Park. Hopefully, we have some better weather this weekend than we did to start the week. We don’t want that chili flying around Thornden Park.

RIOJAS: No, if we could have less of a category one hurricane during the week, the better. Yeah, that’s all for us today, guys, thank you for tuning in. And thank you again to Patrick and Jenny for coming out.

BOURQUE: Thank you for having us.

GUNN: It was a great time, thank you.

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