The ‘On Cinema’ Oscar Specials Are the Nightmarish Awards Counterprogramming Hollywood Deserves

To fans of “On Cinema at the Cinema” — Tim Heidecker and Gregg Turkington’s vast fictional universe that has shoehorned over a decade’s worth of tragedy into a pointless movie review show that gives every single film a perfect score — Oscar night has much higher stakes than the race between “Sinners” and “One Battle After Another.” It’s also the night of the “On Cinema Oscar Special,” a morbid comedy tradition now entering its 13th year of live-streamed gallows humor. And, as always, there’s no telling which characters will survive the celebration.

The format-defying “On Cinema” has spanned 16 seasons and a five-hour murder trial, a feature-length mockumentary, and multiple spin-off series. And while the massive multimedia project breaks just about every rule of narrative pacing, it makes up for it with the ultimate slow-burn story about two utterly unqualified film critics whose ongoing attempts to celebrate Hollywood history has killed,…