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‘Emilia Pérez’ and the Curse of Oscar Bait
The Free Press ^ | 27 Jan 2025 | River Page

Posted on 02/02/2025 8:05:39 PM PST by Rummyfan

Why is the academy obsessed with movies no one wants to see?

Last week, the nominees for the 2025 Academy Awards were announced. The leading contender with 13 total nominations? Emilia Pérez, a French-produced Spanish-language musical about a transgender Mexican drug lord and her underappreciated girlboss defense attorney. The film lost around $15 million at the box office on a relatively modest $26 million budget, so if you haven’t seen it, you likely aren’t alone and shouldn’t feel bad—it wasn’t made for you anyway.

Emilia Pérez is what people call Oscar bait: the sort of film that is made, seemingly, for the express purpose of catching the attention of the approximately 10,000 members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Mostly film-industry insiders, their tastes are predictable. They like austere dramas and social commentary—stories that will make you cry while also attempting to say something about politics. Think of 2016’s Moonlight, a tragedy about a poor, gay drug dealer that grossed $65 million worldwide at the box office. It beat La La Land, which grossed $509 million worldwide, to the title of Best Picture. Or think of Nomadland, which won Best Picture in 2020: It follows a homeless widow who travels the country in a van after losing her job in the Great Recession.

The tastes of the academy are so predictable that they’ve been delightfully parodied—most succinctly perhaps in a 2008 episode of American Dad!, in which Roger the Alien takes on a supervillain persona and produces a film called Oscar Gold about an intellectually disabled Jewish alcoholic whose puppy dies of cancer while he’s hiding in an attic during the Holocaust. The movie is intended to make viewers cry themselves to death.

(Excerpt) Read more at thefp.com ...


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A little diversion for Sunday evening.
1 posted on 02/02/2025 8:05:39 PM PST by Rummyfan
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To: Rummyfan

I can’t remember the last time I bothered to watch the Oscars...


2 posted on 02/02/2025 8:09:36 PM PST by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
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To: Rummyfan; Jamestown1630
a French-produced Spanish-language musical about a transgender Mexican drug lord and her underappreciated girlboss defense attorney.


3 posted on 02/02/2025 8:13:00 PM PST by DoodleBob (Gravity's waiting period is about 9.8 m/s² )
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To: Jamestown1630

It’s been a long time since I’ve seen an awards show.


4 posted on 02/02/2025 8:13:08 PM PST by No name given ( Anonymous is who you’ll know me as)
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To: Rummyfan

The only one I am interested in is “The Girl with the Needle”, it is the meatiest, most substantial film that I have seen in many years.


5 posted on 02/02/2025 8:13:16 PM PST by ansel12 ((NATO warrior under Reagan, and RA under Nixon, bemoaning the pro-Russians from Vietnam to Ukraine.))
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To: DoodleBob

LOL!


6 posted on 02/02/2025 8:13:30 PM PST by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
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To: Rummyfan

At the very end of this article, the author briefly describes a film called Oscar Gold.
Just reading the synopsis is an extreme downer for me.
Gratuitously morbid, morose and melancholy. I have watched depressing documentaries before, but usually, in the expectation of learning about something I didn’t know before.
I already know what it’s like to lose a pet.
I don’t need a Burlesque-Kabuki version to spell it all out for me.


7 posted on 02/02/2025 8:19:50 PM PST by lee martell
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To: lee martell

Did you actually follow the link to ‘Oscar Gold’?


8 posted on 02/02/2025 8:30:48 PM PST by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
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To: Jamestown1630

To be honest, no, I didn’t.


9 posted on 02/02/2025 8:43:38 PM PST by lee martell
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To: Rummyfan

Just saw “The Last Showgirl” starring Pamela Anderson and enjoyed it :)


10 posted on 02/02/2025 8:48:29 PM PST by CondoleezzaProtege
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To: lee martell

It’s not a real movie, it’s a parody.


11 posted on 02/02/2025 8:48:31 PM PST by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
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To: Rummyfan

They’ll probably turn it into a Broadway Musical.


12 posted on 02/02/2025 8:49:43 PM PST by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: ansel12

““The Girl with the Needle””
______________________________

Simply reading the background on the details of the case is enough to give a person nightmares.

The serial killer would fit right in with today’s abortionists.

Terrible all the way around and so sad for the mothers who believed their babies were going to be placed in good homes.


13 posted on 02/02/2025 9:13:36 PM PST by Notthereyet (Not There Yet)
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To: Notthereyet

I didn’t read about it before watching it and the movie was incredible in every way, it was extraordinary, probably the best film making that I have seen since “The Lives of Others”.


14 posted on 02/02/2025 9:18:13 PM PST by ansel12 ((NATO warrior under Reagan, and RA under Nixon, bemoaning the pro-Russians from Vietnam to Ukraine.))
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To: Jamestown1630

I DO REMEMBER THE LAST MOVIE I WENT TO:

FIRST HARRY POTTER MOVIE IN EARLY 1964.

NOTHING SINCE.

THIS KIND OF TRASH WILL NEVER ENTICE ME TO GO TO A MOVIE AGAIN.


15 posted on 02/02/2025 9:53:04 PM PST by ridesthemiles (not giving up on TRUMP---EVER)
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To: ridesthemiles

“FIRST HARRY POTTER MOVIE IN EARLY 1964.”


Was that a typo?

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (known as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in the United States) is a 2001 fantasy film directed by Chris Columbus and produced by David Heyman from a screenplay by Steve Kloves.


16 posted on 02/02/2025 10:08:27 PM PST by Notthereyet (Not There Yet)
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To: Jamestown1630

I grew up a stone’s throw from Hollywood, and I’ve never watched a single one.


17 posted on 02/02/2025 10:37:49 PM PST by Jeff Chandler (THE ISSUE IS NEVER THE ISSUE. THE REVOLUTION IS THE ISSUE.)
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To: Jamestown1630

We used to go to the movies with friends every Friday night and have Oscar night parties. Not any longer.


18 posted on 02/03/2025 12:37:33 AM PST by CdMGuy
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To: ansel12

Thanks for the tip.


19 posted on 02/03/2025 3:44:07 AM PST by sphinx
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To: Rummyfan

A clown show that 95 percent of us dont know who they are


20 posted on 02/03/2025 3:56:27 AM PST by ronnie raygun
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