The failures of ‘Oppenheimer’ and the ascent of the foreign film – 6 essential reads for the Oscars

By Nick Lehr, The Conversation, Arthur Gottschalk, Charles Thorpe, Elizabeth Castaldo Lundén, Kerry Hegarty, Naoko Wake, Scott Malia

Because movies are so subjective, with views on the same performances and direction veering wildly from one critic to the next, determining the best of anything – whether it’s acting, direction or sound design – can be fraught.

But that controversy also makes for good drama and suspense – fitting for a ceremony celebrating the ways in which actors, directors and cinematographers captivate, move and thrill audiences.

So before you tune into Hollywood’s biggest night of the year, here are five recent stories – and one betting tip – about the films, fashion and actors who will be featured at this year’s show.

1. Can you want an Oscar too much?

As Michael Schulman, author of “Oscar Wars,” has written, the Academy Awards are not exactly a “barometer of artistic merit or worth.”

For that reason, in the months leading up to the Oscars, there’s a lot of behind-the-scenes politicking as studios and producers make the case for why their writers, directors, cinematographers, costume designers and actors should win the top prize.

Sometimes the actors will make the case themselves. In recent years, more and more will promote the extent to which they prepared for their roles.

You may have heard that Cillian Murphy lost 20 pounds and took up smoking (fake) cigarettes to play nuclear physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, or that Bradley Cooper spent six years training in the art of conducting in order to film a key scene as Leonard Bernstein in “Maestro.”

The anecdotes are supposed to burnish their Oscar credentials.

Should they?

“Yes, the media loves these kinds of stories, and they can demonstrate a certain type of commitment,” writes Holy Cross theater professor Scott Malia. “But they can also paint actors as pampered and pretentious ‘artistes’ whose process is self-indulgent. A working actor struggling to pay the bills doesn’t have the luxury of, say, insisting that everyone address them by their character’s name.”

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