JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
If this morning's Oscar nominations are any indication, Oscar voters are keen on movies with sweeping social themes this year.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "EMILIA PEREZ")
KARLA SOFIA GASCON: (As Emilia Perez) Bingo.
SUMMERS: Netflix's musical about a trans drug lord, "Emilia Perez," got 13 nods this morning, and another musical, "Wicked," and the drama "The Brutalist" followed close behind.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE BRUTALIST")
GUY PEARCE: (As Harrison Lee Van Buren Sr.) Tell me, why is an accomplished foreign architect shoveling coal here in Philadelphia?
ADRIEN BRODY: (As Laszlo Toth) I'm afraid it is not so simple.
SUMMERS: NPR film critic Bob Mondello has seen them all and is here to talk through the nominations with us. Hey there.
BOB MONDELLO, BYLINE: Hi. Good to be here.
SUMMERS: Good to have you. So Bob, let's just start by talking through the best picture nods. We mentioned three of them - "Emilia Perez," "Wicked" and "The Brutalist." Can you just start off by telling us about those movies?
MONDELLO: Well, sure. You're absolutely right about them being a socially conscious bunch. "Emilia Perez" is centrally about trans identity. "The Brutalist" is about immigrant trauma and antisemitism. "Wicked" is a cheery little musical that just all the subtext is about resisting prejudice and authoritarianism and all that kind of thing.
SUMMERS: Yeah, and I understand that "A Complete Unknown" also got nominated. And if I remember correctly, that is the Bob Dylan biopic?
MONDELLO: Yes. And that sounds like a sort of an outlier because it's just a biopic, right? Except that he was a big deal in the social protest movements in the 1960s, so that goes in there, too. There's also "The Substance" with Demi Moore. It's sort of a body horror flick that's all about unrealistic expectations that society has about female form and aging. "Conclave," the Vatican thriller, is about selecting a pope, but it has a subplot about identity...
SUMMERS: Right.
MONDELLO: ...Politics. "Anora" plays a sort of sexy comic romp, but it's a Cinderella story about a sex worker and a rich Russian kid who's trying to get citizenship.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "ANORA")
MARK EYDELSHTEYN: (As Ivan) Will you marry me?
MIKEY MADISON: (As Ani) Seriously?
EYDELSHTEYN: (As Ivan) Seriously.
MADISON: (As Ani) Three carats.
EYDELSHTEYN: (As Ivan) What about four?
SUMMERS: All right, let me throw in one here, and I want to throw this in because this is a film I actually saw recently. It's "I'm Still Here." It's a Brazilian film. It's about family life and memory under political oppression.
MONDELLO: Yes, absolutely. And it fits nicely with "Nickel Boys," which is about racism in the Jim Crow South, and "Dune: Part Two," even, which is - you know, it's a sci-fi flick...
SUMMERS: Right.
MONDELLO: ...But it's also about colonialism. It's arguably about religious fanaticism. These are serious pictures.
SUMMERS: All right I want to bring it back, if we can, to "Emilia Perez." The star actress, Karla Sofia Gascon, is the first openly trans person to be nominated for acting, and her costar, Zoe Saldana, was nominated as supporting actress. Bob, did you see this coming?
MONDELLO: Everybody saw it coming in a way because it's sort of an Oscar nomination machine. It's got two star parts. It's an international film, so there's the possibility of that. It has two original songs. If you throw in screenplay, director and picture, it's halfway there before you even get started.
SUMMERS: Yeah.
MONDELLO: The other films don't have that.
SUMMERS: Got it. OK, so we've got the nominations - we've run through all of those, but you are our expert, so I want to ask you, what do you think it is that Oscar voters missed this time around?
MONDELLO: Whenever somebody asks me what to see, my first reaction is "The Brutalist." My second is always "A Real Pain."
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "A REAL PAIN")
KIERAN CULKIN: (As Benji Kaplan) You used to cry about everything.
JESSE EISENBERG: (As David Kaplan) Yeah. It was awful. Who wants to cry about everything?
CULKIN: (As Benji Kaplan) We're on a Holocaust tour. If now is not the time to grieve, I don't know what to tell you.
MONDELLO: I wish that had gotten nominated...
SUMMERS: Yeah.
MONDELLO: ...For best picture. "The Substance" did get nominated for best picture. I wish it had gotten more subsidiary awards. And then "Challengers" was an amazing, sexy, fun movie. It came out in April. It's got great music, and it's, like, it got left out. It's just not there. I think it came out too soon.
SUMMERS: That's NPR movie critic Bob Mondello. Thanks so much.
MONDELLO: It's always a pleasure. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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