Oscar the Obscure

Guest post by Gary Mullinax

Which of these movies have you seen? “Anora,” “I’m Still Here,” “Emilia Perez,” “Conclave,” “Nickel Boys,” “The Substance.” None, I’m guessing. But they’re all nominated for a best-picture Oscar, which will handed out Sunday night with all the rest of them.

Of the other four, only two have wide appeal. But “Wicked” requires you to watch Ariana Grande off and on for 162 minutes and “Dune Part Two” strands you on a sandy planet far, far away. Box office receipts tell us many people want to do this.

“A Complete Unknown” is the kind of mainstream biopic audiences usually like. In this case you have to believe Timothée (that’s Timo-THEE) Chalamet could be Bob Dylan. Apparently a lot of people can do that. It hasn’t made nearly as much money as the first two, but it hasn’t been on nearly as many screens.

Now let me say up front, I haven’t seen these movies either. But people who are paid to watch them are happy to tell us about them. If they’re better than they sound, I apologize, but they still don’t feel like Oscar movies to me.

Most of the nominees could be considered art house movies, but cinephiles, don’t go expecting Francois Truffaut. However noble the makers’ ideas might have been, some sound so boringly obscure, so fringe, that only critics would want to see them. And some of the critics are probably just showing off (as I was with the Truffaut reference).

“Emilia Perez,” which was the early favorite, is about a lawyer who is “kidnapped and then recruited by a notorious cartel boss to help her transition into living as a woman.” Its prospects dimmed after the star embarrassed everybody associated with it by trashing the very thing they were mainstreaming.

“The Substance,” which has been described as “viscerally disgusting,” is about people doing gruesome things to their bodies so they’ll look younger. It’s touted as a kind of horror film – but with full frontal nudity! The focus is on a fading star who resists aging, played by Demi Moore, who sometimes seems like a fading star who resists aging.

The probable new favorite, “Anora,” is a “raunchy dramedy about a sex worker” who marries the “naive and reckless son of a Russian playboy.” It doesn’t exactly have folks storming the box office, but it has earned more money than most of these. The poorest earner is “I’m Still Here.” Moviegoers apparently are not eager to learn about the horrors of dictatorship in Brazil (although it might be good practice for life in the United States).

The small movies we’re not getting are the thoughtful, moderately successful ones for adults that used to dot the best picture lists — think “Sideways,” “Lost in Translation,” “A Serious Man.” But that’s what the movie channels on your own screens are for.