We had one film release this past weekend with the potential for Oscar nominations.

Don’t Worry, Darling

When a film has this much press going for it, sometimes the scathing reviews don’t bother its Oscar chances. Olivia Wilde’s box office champion Don’t Worry, Darling is a 60s-set drama with a mystery at its core that is adequately hinted at in the trailer without giving anything away. The press has been insane around the film, reporting on screaming matches between Wilde and star Florence Pugh, fighting between originally-intended star Shia LaBeouf and Wilde, and a strange questionably accurate incident of stars Chris Pine and Harry Styles spitting at one another. Honestly, I tried to stay above the furor on this, so I’m not sure who spat at who, but it’s ridiculous. No press is bad press certainly applies here, but will it have the opposite effect with Oscar voters.

Probably. They don’t like controversy, especially in relation to a film that has a dismal 38% Fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes and 47 at MetaCritic. Critics aren’t likely to cite the film even though Pugh does receive strong remarks for her performance. That likely won’t be able to overcome the bad press and the awful reviews. The B- at CinemaScore suggests the film isn’t likely to have a lot of legs, which means all the news over the next few weeks will likely be about how it’s plummeting at the box office. In the end, the press will be bad from here on out and even if Pugh, the sets, and costumes were up for consideration, I can’t imagine any of them will be cited in the end.