The Dion Waiters Award for Best Heat Check Performance
In the discussion (8)
Approx. transcript time · 00:44:32Read transcript
- Nominees are Joan Allen, Gina Rollins (as transcribed) and James Garner, with honorable mention to Sam Shepard, who is barely in the movie but charming and a clear link to Gosling's Noah, and James Marsden added.
- Asked to make a case, it is Joan Allen, throwing heaters as an extremely Southern mom, especially her reading of 'Sarah Lawrence is in New York'. — Andrew Gruttadaro
- The Sarah Lawrence exchange is played; she is hilarious as a Southern lady and brings the evil-parent vibe that spices up the movie, an evil parent who then tries to redeem herself by sharing her own story.
- Asked to make a case, it is James Garner, because he pretty much carries the old-people plot, which is hard, and is very charming; Jeanette Rollins (as transcribed) does good work but her part is not fun. — Amanda Dobbins
- Rowlands's character is supposed to be confused the whole time, while Garner carries the narrative and emotional thrust and plays it straight enough that you do not know who he is.
- A case is made for James Marsden: delightful and likable, beginning the James Marsden good-guy saga in a role where likability is hard; Lon Hammond Jr. of the Cotton Hammonds gets a bad rap and is not evil just because he has money; his hotel room line is saved for best quote, he is a charmer showing up at her school, and his bravado works even in a full body cast; the speaker also confesses a weakness for Marsden as Cyclops.
- No pick is made; there are just a lot of great Dion Waiters performances in this movie.
- Later, during the overacting award, Joan Allen is argued to be a bit of a heat check, and the hosts debate the award's definition: a Dion Waiters heat check is not necessarily good but is 'wow, she's really going for it'; nobody has ever understood whether it is doing the most with the least, and the standing rule from Bill is that it is doing the most with the least, which is why one voice gives it to James Garner, interpreted positively, even though that differs from the hot-hand sense.