Seth Meyers' Oscar Bait Movie Spoof Is Missing Just One Thing

Late Night brings fans "a story of redemption, racial tension and latent homosexuality shamelessly timed for award season"

By Zach Johnson Feb 22, 2017 1:20 PMTags

Is it too late to add an tenth Best Picture nominee at the 2017 Oscars?

On Late Night Tuesday, Seth Meyers parodied the films typically nominated for Academy Awards. Directed by Mike Karnell, the movie spoof also starred Jenny Hagel and Amber Ruffin.

Meyers, of course, was the film's leading man. The nearly six-minute trailer began with a voiceover as "clips" were shown: "This winter, see a film that's not afraid to pander to your emotions, a film that is shamelessly timed for award season: Oscar Bait. Critics are calling Oscar Bait 'a triumph' (Vanity Fair), 'daring' (The Hollywood Reporter), and The Los Angeles Times says, 'Oscar Bait is the most blatant attempt to win an Oscar since The King's Speech.' Oscar Bait checks off all the boxes: racial tension, latent homosexuality and a man staring at trains."

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Lloyd Bishop/NBC

According to the voiceover, The Hollywood Reporter's reviewer wrote, "If you like films where a character is forced to overcome a rare disease, then this my friends, is your film." On a similar note, The Boston Globe's critic wrote, "I didn't cry once, but the main character cried 47 times."

"USA Today wrote, 'Even the mailman cried, and he was literally onscreen for two seconds,' and The New Yorker said, 'So. Much. Snot.'" Oscar Bait seemingly drew inspiration from Loving, Manchester by the Sea other nominees. According to the voiceover, it's "a story of redemption, featuring pretentiously artistic shots of a man's hand grazing wheat, the grabbing of a bed sheet to indicate an orgasm...and that weird Spike Lee thing where the character is gliding towards the camera and it's like, 'Is he walking? Is he floating? What the hell is that thing?'

Lloyd Bishop/NBC

Oscar Bait's most pivotal scene features "one long shot of a man playing Solitaire, which serves two purposes: The first purpose is to impress you with how long it goes without a single cut," the voiceover explained. "The second purpose is more metaphorical: He's playing Solitaire not just because he's alone in this game, but he's also alone in life. And when he sadly looks up and says, 'I lost,' he's not just referring to losing a game of cards. He's again—and not to belabor the point—suggesting he's lost in life. Boom! There's your Oscar right there, motherf--ker." And, "just so we've covered all the bases," it showed "the racial tension scene again, but in French."

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Lloyd Bishop/NBC

"Oscar Bait is the film everyone will tell you see but you'll never quite get around to it, with vague dialogue that sounds sort of profound, a child actor with three names (Finnean Samson Hoyt) and a stoic man who loses his s--t behind the wheel of his car for way too long. Oh, and one scene straight up stolen from the movie Carol," the voiceover continued, with Meyers taking filling in for Rooney Mara, who played Therese Belivet. "Oscar Bait: coming soon to that weird independent movie theater one town over that's always about to go out of business."

Lloyd Bishop/NBC

The only thing Oscar Bait was missing was a physical transformation from Meyers, á la Halle Berry, Adrian Brody, Matthew McConaughey, Charlize Theron and many more Oscar winners.

Maybe next year.

(E! and NBC are both members of the NBCUniversal family.)

For complete Oscars coverage, tune in to E! News at 7 p.m. and Fashion Police at 8 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 27.