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 "Call
Me By Your Name" is hailed as a heartbreaking gay romance, but
some are puzzled that the filmmakers cast two straight actors to
play the lead roles.
While recent years have seen the Oscars attacked for
under-representing women or people of color, this year's
contenders have been plagued by backlash and scandals ranging
from accusations of plagiarism, sexual misconduct, and criticism
from gay and African-American communities.
"Every main contender seems to have a knock on it," said Dave
Karger, special correspondent for movie database IMDB.com.
Hollywood's three-month-long awards season, culminating in the
Oscars ceremony on Sunday, along with the influence of social
media, has fueled such criticism.
Fantasy "The Shape of Water," which has a leading 13
nominations, was hit with a copyright infringement lawsuit last
week alleging that its plot about a mute cleaner who falls for a
mysterious river creature was lifted, without credit, from a
1969 play by late American playwright Paul Zindel.
Studio Fox Searchlight <FOXA.O> said the claims are "baseless
(and) wholly without merit."
20th Century Fox's press freedom movie "The Post" has seen
sniping over misperceptions that The Washington Post broke a
story in 1971 about the classified Pentagon Papers study of the
Vietnam War, and not the New York Times.
The loudest complaints have been leveled at Fox Searchlight's
best picture front-runner "Three Billboards." Critics feel the
dark comedy's portrayal of a dim-witted and small-town racist
cop, played by Sam Rockwell, is an affront to deep-seated
prejudice that still exists in the United States and have called
it "tone-deaf" and "hopelessly bad on race."
British director Martin McDonagh, who also wrote the screenplay,
has defended the film.
"I don't think his (Rockwell's) character is redeemed at all. He
starts off as a racist jerk, he's pretty much the same at the
end, but by the end he's seen that he has to change," McDonagh
told Entertainment Weekly in a February interview.
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"It's supposed to be a deliberately messy and difficult film.
Because it's a messy and difficult world," McDonagh added.
The backlash has not so far derailed the path of "Three Billboards"
to best picture wins at the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild and
British BAFTAs, as well as multiple awards for Rockwell and lead
actress Frances McDormand.
"People often latch onto the Oscars as a way of promoting their
causes," said Tim Gray, awards editor at Hollywood trade publication
Variety.
The #MeToo movement likely benefited Christopher Plummer, who got a
supporting actor Oscar nod after replacing Kevin Spacey last
November in Sony Pictures <6758.T> kidnapping drama "All the Money
in the World." Spacey's scenes were reshot after he was accused by
multiple men of sexual harassment. He apologized for one incident
and has retreated from public life.
As for Sony Pictures Classic's "Call Me By Your Name," director Luca
Guadagnino, who is gay, said he cast straight actors Armie Hammer
and Oscar nominee Timothee Chalamet as the film's young lovers based
on what he thought they could bring to the roles.
Final ballots went out to the 8,000 or so Academy members on Feb.
20, but Karger thinks voters pay less attention to such
controversies than the media.
"I think a lot of voters are really focused on the films and the
performances and not the noise," he said.
(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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