The Dion Waiters Award for Best Heat Check Performance
Elliot Gould
In the discussion (6)
Approx. transcript time · 00:34:33Read transcript
- Clooney, Pitt and Damon are set aside as the stars; the nominees are Elliot Gould (as transcribed), the preseason number one pick, Cheadle, Scott Kahn, Casey Affleck, Julia and Topher Grace.
- Gould, no question: a beautiful, perfect, smart casting choice to evoke cool, funny, slick, jazzy 70s heist thrillers, really funny, and the character who says what a normal human would say about robbing a casino being blatantly absurd; Arkin would have been great too.
- Another pick is Julia: she is this close to hating everyone on any set, and under the America's sweetheart smile there is an undercurrent of disdain and impatience that Soderbergh understands and that animates the whole performance; on screen about eight minutes, electric, and parceled out well.
- One host wanted more Tess and how she and Danny came together; the counter is the rule of Jay Z and Beyonce that less is more, and that teasing out why Tess is with either man makes it fall apart; Julia Roberts is never outside in sunlight, probably shot over three nights, raising the question whether a curator of her taste would consent to a sunless, air-conditioned Vegas life, though she was married to a thief and precious art cannot see the light either.
- Another vote goes to Bernie Mac, for the table scene, though he was not nominated, which draws a Jill Stein write-in joke.
- Gould is interesting because people the hosts' age know him as Monica's father, so the godfather role here throws him back toward what he was truly famous for; a second vote for Gould as connective tissue to the 70s films Soderbergh references and as what the Rat Pack guys would be if they got old and stinking rich, living off the strip in a house they cannot afford, selling remaindered furniture with a butler; Gould is the pick.