Tales of reinvention abound in Oscars race

F. Scott Fitzgerald, who said there are no second acts in American lives, might have felt differently had he seen this year’s Oscar race.

In mid-November, there is much solidifying, scrapping and self-promotion to come (not to mention a few potential awards heavyweights). But most of the expected contenders have by now been seen and there’s a definite theme: Reinvention is the season’s most sought-after attribute.

One after another, potential contenders have trotted out new iterations of themselves: Lady Gaga, the actor; Alfonso Cuaron, the re-made filmmaker; Melissa McCarthy, dramatic actress; Peter Farrelly, a million miles from “Dumb and Dumber.”

Metamorphoses, like that of Rami Malek’s prosthetic-toothed, full-bodied performance as Freddie Mercury in “Bohemian Rhapsody” (an expected best actor nominee), are always a staple of awards season. But this year, transformation is more than a costume change. It’s an abiding ethos.

Coming between the fall festivals and the onset of critics’ awards, November is when Oscar campaigns hope to get enough traction to land on — or ascend — the short lists that proliferate ahead of the litany of ceremonies to come.

So far, much of the field breaks down between an old dichotomy: crowd-pleasers and show-stoppers, and intimate art-house indies. Among the former are Bradley Cooper’s box-office smash “A Star Is Born;” Peter Farrelly’s soon-to-debut charmer “Green Book,” with Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen; and Ryan Coogler’s superhero sensation “Black Panther.”

All of them are studio films. And each reminds Hollywood it can still do something it may have thought it no longer could: make an old-fashioned romance; craft a poignant, uplifting comic drama; create an urgent and meaningful comic book film.

Like many of this year’s nominees, Hollywood, itself, is in flux. The film industry is becoming more digital (Disney and Warner Bros. are prepping Netflix-like streaming services) and it’s shrinking (Disney is acquiring Fox; more consolidation is expected). Hollywood is searching for a second act, too.

Partly to appease Oscar voters, Netflix has for the first time granted a theatrical window for a handful of films (including “Roma” and the Coen brothers’ “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs”). The gesture has an underlying message to Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences members: Netflix and theaters can coexist (at least if an Oscar is at stake).

There are plenty of contenders predicated not on reinvention, but on doing what they do best.

There is Spike Lee’s incendiary “BlacKkKlansman,” a prize-winner at the Cannes Film Festival. Yorgos Lanthimos’ savage period romp “The Favourite” could land noms for all three of its leads: Olivia Colman, Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz. (The latter two are expected to go as supporting actresses.) Two years after “Moonlight” won best picture, Barry Jenkins is back with an equally lyrical and eloquent film, the James Baldwin adaptation “If Beale Street Could Talk.”