As the fall festivals finally begin to wind down, the Oscar race is starting to solidify. Certain contenders (like Prima Facie and Bunker) have been left behind while others (like The Debut or La Bola Negra) are forging ahead with wind in their sails. I’ll do a full Oscar race debrief in a few weeks once I’ve polished off the remainder of my New York Film Festival watchlist (and obviously frontrunner Verity), but this week we did see Primetime position itself as a potential contender after it took home a sizable $20M opening weekend. That’s a lot for an artsy A24 movie.
Outside of Primetime, this was a fairly bizarre week at the theater. A re-release of Avengers: Endgame earned the top spot, while Resident Evil finished second in its second week. Several other odd smaller films, including Heart of the Beast, a Brad Pitt dog movie, a DreamWorks animated film called Forgotten Island, the romance Charlie Harper, Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!, which is set in the Tokyo ballroom scene, and The Stunt Driver, all fought over the remaining several million. While November and December will be packed with blockbusters and Oscar contenders, September still has some room for delightful oddities.
However, the major story of the week in pop culture was not in film but rather in music. Taylor Swift returned with The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore, her worst-performing album in years, which stirred up plenty of discourse. Taylor entering her flop era, however, did inspire my first story of the week.
Valedictorian: Diane Warren’s Oscar chances
Awarded to THE standout figure of the week, recognizing exceptional talent across disciplines.
If you’re not an Oscar obsessive, you probably have no idea who songwriter Diane Warren is, but awards lovers know her as one of the biggest Academy Awards losers of all time. Warren has been nominated 17 times for the Best Original Song Oscar and has lost every single one. Warren started her streak back in 1987, penning “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” for Mannequin, and then was nominated five more times before 2001 for hits like “How Do I Live” and “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing.”
Then came a decade-long dry spell before she was nominated again in 2014. She was then nominated 11 out of the following 12 years, and not for songs in movies you’ve ever heard of. Do Breakthrough, The Life Ahead, Four Good Days, or Tell It Like a Woman ring any bells? But the moral of the story is that the songwriting branch of the Academy wants to give this woman an Oscar so badly that they even nominated her for Flamin’ Hot, aka the Cheetos movie, in 2023.
Last year, Diane was nominated for a song that she wrote for a documentary about her own life, Diane Warren: Relentless, and having watched that, I’m now fully on board with getting Diane an Oscar. She clearly wants it so badly, and deserves it after a lifetime of writing music for films.
Now, I’ve written extensively about the Best Original Song Oscar, and it’s a category that really varies in quality from year to year. For example, 2018 gave us A Star Is Born and Black Panther. Diane Warren’s song from RBG had no business winning that Oscar. In 2024, however, the Oscar went to a song from Emilia Perez. I’d personally argue that Diane’s track from The Six Triple Eight could have easily won instead, giving Diane her Oscar and freeing up her year nomination slot moving forward. Last year, up against Sinners and K-pop Demon Hunters, she wasn’t winning.
This brings me to the 2027 Oscar Best Original Song race. Diane Warren has a song called “By Any Means,” which is performed by David Kushner and The Isley Brothers in the Mark Wahlberg film By Any Means. This is by no means an Oscar-bait movie, BUT the song is remarkably good, the movie has a Black queer director, and The Isley Brothers performing at the Oscars would be legendary. So I’d argue that this is Warren’s strongest song in at least a decade.
Another boon for Warren is that there is no smash hit in the lineup. There’s a song in The Odyssey, Lady Gaga’s track from The Devil Wears Prada, a Phoebe Bridgers track over the Primetime credits, and all of Charli XCX’s music from Wuthering Heights, but there aren’t many compelling narratives there.
It seems like Warren’s stiffest competition will be tracks from La Bola Negra and The Debut, both of which will likely win Oscars in other categories, and Taylor Swift’s “I Knew It, I Knew You” from Toy Story 5.
I think we as a society of film lovers need to rally behind Warren for three reasons: 1) Diane Warren’s track is genuinely catchy, 2) if we give her an Oscar now, then we don’t have to nominate her again for a bad song, and 3) it would be really satisfying to watch Taylor Swift lose an Oscar she clearly thinks is in the bag given the Toy Story track record in that category.
So come on everyone, 18th time’s the charm.
A+ in Fashion: Taylor Swift at the VMAs
Awarded to the best-dressed individual of the week, either a real-life human or an on-screen character.
As an objective journalist, I will say that Taylor Swift’s VMAs look was one of her best. She really does look incredible in this dress, and I like the styling of her hair.
A+ in Writing: School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play
Awarded to the best use of the English language in the past 7 days.
There’s nothing quite as satisfying as a well-written play, and Jocelyn Bioh’s Ghana-set take on Mean Girls is one of the sharpest (and funniest) I’ve seen in recent memory. The production follows a clique of boarding school girls competing to be Miss Ghana 1986, whose world is turned upside down by the arrival of a new student from America. Bioh weaves rich cultural commentary with catty infighting and humor that shines through even the darker moments of the story. As only the second show to open this season, School Girls is certainly setting the Tonys bar high right out of the gate.
A+ in Acting: Merritt Wever in Primetime
Awarded to the individual(s) who deserve(s) an Oscar for their remarkable performance(s) on screen, large or small.
While Robert Pattinson may be putting butts in seats, it’s Emmy darling Merritt Wever who is delivering the strongest performance of the film. Wever plays a To Catch a Predator’s opportunistic producer, who will happily coax and cajole her way to whatever she wants. I don’t know if the part is big enough for an Oscar nomination, but in a perfect world, it would be.
F in Vibes: The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore
Awarded to the entity with the worst energy, most unwell aura, and bleakest constitution.
It is really a testament to the marketing powers of Taylor Swift that she was able to completely revive her career after #TaylorSwiftIsOverParty back pre-Reputation. However, that takedown seemed largely aimed at her behavior and personality as a celebrity. The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore marks a second nadir for the career of Taylor Swift, as even her fans can’t quite choke down the monstrosity that is “Cleveland!” That being said, I think this album is potentially more damning for Taylor than anything Kim or Kanye said. That’s because the angry mobs are coming for her songwriting this time, and if she can’t rely on that, then really what can she rely on?
I’d argue that Taylor Swift is at a bit of a precarious point in her career, and I think she’s got to weigh her next moves carefully. Perhaps rather than rush out another album, she should take some time to make sure that the next songs she releases are unimpeachable. While I think there could be plenty more to say on the potential fall of Taylor Swift, I think we’re still a bit early to call it here. I’ll be writing something more in-depth whenever she makes her next move.
Required Reading: Still Counting
If you’re going to engage with media in the upcoming week, this is what you should be engaging with.
If you’re thinking about the midterm elections as much as I am, then I’d recommend this podcast from the group that used to host the 538 podcast. Extremely insightful and entertaining.
A Note to Parents Regarding Dancing With the Stars Predictions
Sorry kids, but it’s time for the grown-ups to talk. If you’re a paying subscriber, feel free to read on for gossip, hot takes, and potentially controversial subject matter for your eyes only.