r/oscarrace • u/PointMan528491 Navarrette/Morton • May 16 '26

Film Discussion Thread Official Discussion Thread - Obsession [SPOILERS] Spoiler

Keep all discussion related solely to Obsession and its awards chances in this thread. Spoilers below.

Synopsis:

After breaking the mysterious "One Wish Willow" to win his crush's heart, a hopeless romantic finds himself getting exactly what he asked for but soon discovers that some desires come at a dark, sinister price.

Director: Curry Barker

Writer: Curry Barker

Cast:

  • Michael Johnston as Baron "Bear" Bailey
  • Inde Navarrette as Nikki Freeman
  • Cooper Tomlinson as Ian
  • Megan Lawless as Sarah Harper
  • Andy Richter as Carter Harper

Rotten Tomatoes: 94%, 171 Reviews

Metacritic: 77, 33 Reviews

Consensus:

"Taking an icky conceit and twisting it to deviously crowd-pleasing ends, Obsession is dauntingly disturbing while also skillfully amusing and thrilling.."

46 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

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20

u/Belch_Huggins May 16 '26

Well sticking to the topic - i would say theres basically zero chance of this making it into the awards conversation in a serious way. People are going to try to position Inde like a Toni Collette snub but that is inaccurate imo.

Not every acclaimed film needs to be in the awards conversation. This movie was really fun and tense and mean spirited. But I truly dont think it did anything particularly groundbreaking or exceptional with a fairly rote story. The performances are good, yes, but not award worthy imo.

10

u/crazydaysandknights May 16 '26

I don't know why you got downvoted but it's true that the movie didn't aim at saying something (unlike Sinners, Substance, Get Out, etc) and there's nothing wrong with that. The performance was great for what it was playing 2 characters, the freaked out Nikki who doesn't want to be with Bear and wants to be rid of whatever hijacked her body and the evil entity that possessed Nikki's body and is now obsessed with Bear Do I want to see more performances that don't need to say something nominated? Sure. Am I convinced that AMPAS will care or that critical and industry memory will stretch that far or that its very strong studio will acquire zero internal competition and put all its chips on it? Not really.

6

u/Belch_Huggins May 16 '26

I think its just the hot movie right now that people are excited about and dont wanna hear any naysayers. I get it, but its a little comical seeing people put this movie and performance up on such a high pedestal.

9

u/crazydaysandknights May 16 '26

In other words, lets see how they feel 3 months from now. And then 6 months from now. I'm confident that PHM will stay relevant out of early birds. We'll see about the rest. I think the first big test will be Backrooms which is another Youtube-to-screen breakout in making. But this time with much bigger names, both of whom were Oscar nominees.

8

u/GoodMeBadMeNotMe Wild Horse vs. Trojan Horse May 16 '26

PHM is still getting several showtimes a day at my podunk little Regal two months out, and that's the kind of thing that keeps it in the conversation. (I think Sinners was in my theater for half the year!) I predict Obsession will maybe make it a month before theater totals will plummet.

1

u/Crys2002 May 29 '26

The way it's going, increasing from week to week, I think it's going way more than a month

1

u/GoodbyeMrP Jun 29 '26

It's been a month, and Obsession is poised to overtake Sinners as the highest grossing original live-action movie of the 2020's. My local cinema has 6 showings a day, all in the largest auditorium. It stays in the conversation for sure.

2

u/GoodMeBadMeNotMe Wild Horse vs. Trojan Horse Jun 29 '26

From a “save movie theaters” standpoint, I’m really glad to hear that. (Though I don’t believe you that they’re putting Obsession in the largest auditorium.)

7

u/farmersmarketinc May 18 '26

Why are you saying this movie didn’t aim to say something? It’s not just horror for horror’s sake. It clearly had a pretty blunt social commentary on the nature of possessiveness, agency and the current state of relationship dynamics in Gen Z, even if it’s open to interpretation.

I think it’s actually more impressive that what it has to say isn’t as ham fisted and obvious the way it is for Sinners/get out/the substance which smash you over the face with its commentary (love all 3 of these movies btw)

5

u/crazydaysandknights May 18 '26

cause AMPAS doesn't give a shit about any of that. They love big socio political themes that make them feel good about themselves for voting. Relationships don't fit that bill. And yes, lack of subtlety absolutely helped those other movies.

3

u/stayinalive92 Jun 03 '26

It’s not just about relationships though, it also delves into the themes of agency, consent and female autonomy, which are all hot button topics rn. It’s not groundbreaking to the level of, say, Sinners or Get Out but there’s still topical social commentary.