If you can approach it merely as an oddity from Cannes — an aesthetic experiment whose primary triumph is that it exists at all — then it's actually pretty delightful. (It probably also helps to see it on the big screen.) Even its being mind-bogglingly offensive just adds to the dazzlement of "I can't believe this got made."
Viewed as a Best Picture front-runner, however, it's every bit as excruciating as you've heard. That Oscar voters "largely consider the movie…