Chapter 1: What are the main films competing for Best Picture this year?
At this year's Oscars, one battle after another took home the award for Best Picture, Michael B. Jordan won for Lead Actor, and the telecast had plenty of jokes at Timothee Chalamet's expense. Listen to a recap on Pop Culture Happy Hour via the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Um, who is your best picture pick? I'm going to go with one battle after another.
My personal pick would be far different. Okay. Wait, wait, wait. What is it? So this is not your personal deep down in your soul pick? No, no. It wasn't nominated. It was Blue Moon. My heart pick is Sinners. But if I had to choose the best movie on the list, to me, that's The Secret Agent. Ooh.
If I had to choose between One Battle After Another and Sinners, it's actually also for me One Battle After Another. The Academy Awards are this Sunday, and for the first time in a long time, I feel like everyone is anticipating who will win big. There have been so many amazing films in the past year, but if we're being real, it's all boiled down to sinners versus one battle after another.
And on its face, it makes sense. Sinners, directed by Ryan Coogler, is an original story with vampires, sensuality, and a laser focus on the way whiteness can consume us all. One battle after another, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, interrogates revolutionary activism, parenthood, and what it means to save yourself.
But what could be a productive conversation about how these films are speaking to this moment in American culture has turned into a contentious online discourse about race, white liberalism, representation in Hollywood, and the industry as a whole. A lot of this debate actually comes from fans of Sinners feeling the need to defend Sinners as a movie.
I think a lot of the defense for One Battle After Another is in response to the defense for Sinners. Whether you're new to this or have been deep in the discourse, I've got staff writer of culture at Slate, Nadira Goff. Hey, thanks for having us. And associate editor at RogerEbert.com, Robert Daniels. Yeah, thanks for having us. To help unpack it all. Hello, hello.
I'm Brittany Luce, and you're listening to It's Been a Minute from NPR, a show about what's going on in culture and why it doesn't happen by accident. a heads up, this conversation was recorded just before the incident at the BAFTAs, where several members of the Sinners cast had a racial slur shouted at them from the audience by Tourette Syndrome activist John Davidson.
Davidson has since apologized, stating that his actions were not at all intended and instead are a result of his neurological condition. Attention has turned toward the British Academy Film Awards organization who put together the awards ceremony and the BBC who broadcast the awards ceremony and at least one utterance of the racial slur.
There has been some tension between people who are fans of One Battle After Another and people who are fans of Sinners. I wonder, why do you think these movies have been discussed in such an oppositional way? There are 10 Best Picture nominees. Why do you think people are at each other's throats when it comes to these two films?
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Chapter 2: How do 'Sinners' and 'One Battle After Another' reflect current American culture?
projects black women and also equally like sexual terms but um terms that feel like that are on their own plane or definition that it it's almost easier to put them in opposition to each other because it feels like they're in some ways grappling with the same topics in some ways you know in terms of revolutionary politics in one sense it's a it's a one battle after another it's a um
secret underground organization and centers, it's within the economics of, you know, of the South. And so because they are in some ways kind of fighting on the same turf, even though one has vampires and the other one doesn't, that it's become significantly easier in this case to kind of draw the battle line, so to speak. I think because there isn't a sort of
call to action in terms of supporting this movie, right? You had the La La Land versus Moonlight debate, which is vote for Moonlight, not La La Land. You have Oscars So White, which is please nominate more Black actors. But when people feel like this movie is being treated unfairly or not winning, they don't have any sort of specific recourse. So what happens? Well,
One battle another wins over sinners and all of a sudden that's racist. K-pop demon hunters wins over sinners and all of a sudden that's racist. But I think to what Robert was saying, a large part of this is because a lot of these movies, they trade in blackness, right? Even Timothee Chalamet, it's not just that he won.
It's that Marty Supreme was a movie that he promoted with a well-documented press tour that like, involved performing blackness. And whether that performing of blackness was genuine to him, that's something that's oft debated. It's true, right? He was collaborating with rappers. He's wearing Timbalands to mainstream award ceremonies. He's, you know, promoting this whole hustle culture thing.
And so even then, it's kind of like he's winning over this black actor, even though his press tour and his campaign for this award was rooted in blackness, right? One battle another is winning, even though the movie is rooted in black revolutionaries or black women. And so it feels to a lot of fans like this sort of slap in the face.
And I think that's when things get particularly unhinged and vitriolic online. I want to move to talking about one battle after another. I've seen people who are huge fans of Sinners. and not feeling one battle after another level all sorts of accusations about what the aims of the film are or how it handles race or gender or sexuality.
And I'll admit, even though I loved one battle after another, I really enjoyed the film, there were some places where I felt a little uneasy with some characterizations, even though overall I thought the project of the story and the direction and the execution were extremely strong.
I've seen some people insinuate that the only reason it's getting so many nominations is because of white liberal guilt.
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Chapter 3: What contentious issues are raised by the films' online discussions?
So just without spoiling too much, that is, I think, a helpful way to set up what happens in that first 30, 45 minutes. Yeah. The other two hours are, you know, the story that we've come to know, the Leonardo DiCaprio trying to get his daughter back. That's the part that has Benicio Del Toro in it. That's when Regina Hall gets to shine a little bit more.
And I think if we're talking about depictions of revolutionaries, the criticism that it is mocking revolutionaries is, I think— One way to read it, I choose to see the film as saying that revolutionaries don't have to be perfect. They don't have to be perfect people, but they can still be impactful, right? And their legacy can still matter.
But if I think about the best depiction of a revolutionary in that movie, it is Benicio Del Toro. It has nothing to do with the first 30 to 40 minutes. And so I, yeah, almost all the criticisms I think are about that first prologue, which I think is such a disservice to the actual craft story.
um of the movie that paul thomas anderson has has helmed yeah i mean i i absolutely agree and you know in terms of its revolutionary politics does it does it push far enough you know because it's i think one of the complaints has been that most of us referring to is is broad in scope right it doesn't specifically say like we're anti-ice or something like that like you know you can infer it but it doesn't actually say it however though if you think about
The type of film that it is at the level that it is, can anyone think of, I mean, you can think of independent films. Sure. But like an actual Hollywood studio putting that much money behind something that is like, you know, quote unquote revolutionary in its aims. Yeah.
is incredibly rare incredibly that you have to think of like ishtar and also and we also see what that did for elaine may's career like yeah you know and so they're you know they're quote-unquote levels to this right in terms of like Yeah. Is it a screed that is just calling out names on a checklist? No, it's not. But is it doing something that is very rare at its budgetary level? Yes.
And of course, that kind of criticism has leaped over into the criticism of the Black women characters, particularly Black women revolutionaries. And part of that, I think, stems from the fact that We don't have many films about Black women revolutionaries. Like, this is kind of it. There are a couple more, of course. But, you know, there aren't many.
And so I feel like there has been, in terms of the kind of desire to, I don't know, maybe sanitize, like, these characters into being something that is... something that could be put on a pedestal, I think is a flattening of history and the history of revolutionaries. It kind of mimics life, right? Like no one ever really wants to hear a bad thing about MLK.
They don't want to hear about his sort of philandering or what have you, right? Because it sort of ruins this picture of this very positive character that has been somewhat sanitized. And even just this idea that civil disobedience is entirely peaceful is is a sanitized idea, right? And I think that that's something that we do in actual history.
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Chapter 4: Why is there a divide between fans of 'Sinners' and 'One Battle After Another'?
In years, I've seen super fans of Sinners say that they've gone to see the movie in theaters repeatedly, four, five, six, seven times. But I haven't seen that same fervor. catch on with regards to other black films that have come out this year, like in the past year.
And maybe I'm missing something, but why do y'all think the same energy around making sure that Sinners is properly recognized hasn't spread to other, you know, for reasons having to do with like this being a black film made by black filmmakers. Why do you think that that energy hasn't spread to other black films that have come out this past year?
Like, why do you think it's kind of funneled into this one project? Yeah, I mean, I think that much of it has to do with the packaging and access. You know, like, Sinners played in multiplexes. And something like On Becoming a Guinea Fowl, which I love, was a very limited release, right? Yeah. And so it's hard to become a fan of something.
It's hard to support something if it's just not making it to you. And Sinners made itself to people. Very true. And also the packaging, I think, as well. I mean, like... Coogler, you know, really at the beginning, talking about how many different formats it was going to be in, right, is in a sense selling the film, not just as a film and not just as an event, but also as like art, right?
That video clip sold so many tickets. I can promise you. It really did. Yes, it sold so many. And so I think there is... even more of a sense of like, we have to support this one because this isn't just a black film. This isn't just, this is a, this is black art. And so it has, I think that, that higher kind of like chance of regard as opposed to other things.
That's a really, really, really good point that you made, Robert, that like, you know, sometimes these films that honestly could be better than a lot or most or all of the films that are competing for best picture.
Sometimes these films don't even hit the radar of many possible audiences because sometimes due to circumstances out of their control, they just are not properly marketed and they aren't able to connect with an audience. I live in New York where you can see almost anything in a theater if you plan right or if you look it up early enough, whether it's an indie theater.
Even for the big movies sometimes now, unless it's an awards season, it's like you got two weeks. I know. It's a short period of time. That's why I said if you plan properly – You could see almost anything.
But if I think about friends who live in, you know, the Midwest or in other places that aren't New York and L.A., like, you actually maybe have zero chance of seeing some of these better indie films of the year. Yeah, I mean, I, you know, live in Chicago. I was born and raised in Chicago. And growing up, and it's the same thing now, on the west side of the city, there was always
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