Thoughts on Demi Moore actually winning the Oscar

When I first saw The Substance, I thought, “Wow, Demi was good, I think there’s genuinely enough material there for an Oscar nomination, but of course they’ll never do it.”  So on the one hand I’ve been delighted to see the movie embraced by awards voters and Demi actually being acknowledged.  But the fact that she seems increasingly positioned to win has somehow diluted my feelings?  Almost like a “frontrunner fatigue” sort of issue that I've been trying to understand. 

There’s an easy parallel to make with like Brendan Fraser in The Whale – it’s the typical thing the Oscars do where they award a good (but not year-best) performance from a beloved actor based on narrative, the type of win that makes you feel good but ends up aging poorly.  I hate to put Demi in the same category because her movie is genuinely bonkers good and the fact that she’s even nominated will always be super cool, but has anyone else had the same feeling of distance from the hype as time goes on? 

When I look at the Best Actress nominees I don’t think Demi gave the actual best performance.  I’d personally say Cynthia Erivo did, and then Mikey Madison (though I haven’t seen I’m Still Here).  I guess if Demi does win, there’s plenty of reason to be pleased, mainly because it’s a landmark moment for overcoming genre bias.  But I don’t think The Substance needs to win Best Actress (and I also wasn’t too torn up about Margaret Qualley missing) to get its full just desserts for the quality of movie it was.