Oscar Predictions: The Idea of You

Rom com The Idea of You closed out this year’s South by Southwest festival prior to its Amazon Prime streaming debut on May 2nd. Based on the novel by Robinne Lee, the adaptation casts Anne Hathaway (Supporting Actress winner for 2012’s Les Miserables) as a divorcee who finds herself in a relationship with a superstar boy band singer played by Nicholas Galiztine. Ella Rubin, Reid Scott, and Annie Mumolo costar. Michael Showalter, who made The Big Sick and directed Jessica Chastain to a Best Actress victory in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, is behind the camera.

The small sampling of early reviews indicate a crowdpleaser that shouldn’t get in the heads of the Academy. That said, the Golden Globes might be a different story. In the Musical/Comedy field, Hathaway could make a play for Actress attention. So could the picture depending on the level of competition that follows in the next nine and a half months (though Hathaway is a likelier possibility). My Oscar Prediction posts will continue…

Oscar Predictions: Bottoms

After receiving kudos when it screened at South by Southwest in the spring, Emma Seligman’s Bottom raucous teen comedy Bottoms is up in limited release this weekend. It marks the director’s second feature after her acclaimed 2020 debut Shiva Baby, which made its way to a few critical best of lists. Rachel Sennott, who starred in Baby, headlines here. The supporting cast includes Ayo Edebiri, Havana Rose Liu, Kaia Gerber, Nicholas Galitzine, Dagmara Domińczyk, and former NFL star Marshawn Lynch.

As summer 2023 closes out at the box office, this is currently an unlikely winner for best Rotten Tomatoes score of the season at 99%. A number of reviews are calling it an instant classic of its genre.

For awards prospects, a best case scenario could be an Original Screenplay nod or some love in the Musical/Comedy Film competition at the Globes. Like other classics of its genre, a more likely scenario is no attention from voters of those branches as it seeks to achieve cult status. My Oscar Prediction posts will continue…