On Friday, we learned that HBO had quietly opened the Sundance hit doc Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired in one theater on 181st Street in Manhattan, so that the film could qualify for an Oscar nomination before it runs on the cable channel in June. The doc wasn’t screened for the press, because the release is obligatory and presumably TV critics will have at it soon enough. But the New York Times, who have a mandate to review every film that open in any theatrical venue in Manhattan, put Manohla Dargis on an A train up to 181st street and ran her review in today’s paper. The circumstances of the film’s virtual non-release were deemed remarkable enough for inclusion in the review’s second paragraph, where Dargis backhands the doc with praise and notes that the token, Academy-baiting theatrical release could be an exercise in futility. “Its one-week theatrical run will make it eligible for Academy Award consideration, though given that organization’s often pitiful record when it comes to nonfiction film, it seems unlikely that a movie this subtly intelligent would make its short list.”

AJ Schnack argues that a film which so stealthily end-runs an actual theatrical audience doesn’t deserve the slot on the short list that it’s so baldy fishing for. “The Academy’s a bunch of suckers if they shortlist any HBO film when HBO won’t even do the minimal work to allow that film to be a true theatrical release,” he writes. “Give them a raft of Emmys…But don’t let them anywhere near the Kodak unless the films get reviewed, get publicized and get seen by paying audiences.”

Obviously, the circumstances of Wanted’s release (or lack thereof), and the questions it raises about the ethical loophole in the Academy’s qualifying process, have now become a much bigger story than the movie itself. When matters like this overshadow movies, it’s officially (say it with me now) Bad For Cinema. But let’s find the upside: a at least the Coliseum Cinemas is getting a lot of free press…which it needs, because HBO isn’t paying for publicity.