Perhaps it might still be a bit too early yet to be discussing the 98th Academy Awards, a whopping five months ahead of their March commencement date. Even more egregious on my behalf is trying to predict early nominees…. For example, by this time last year Joker 2 was at the top of every prediction list and the surefire frontrunner in nearly every category. Then came the titanic-sized disastrous spiral to the bottom of the box office ocean of that movie and a preceding sweep in almost every Razzie category, resulting in a pretty quick termination from every prediction list. So again, these are just theories and not even remotely accurate as to what may show up in the Dolby Theater next March.
Further complicating the uncertainty of this awards season is the failure of the normal predictors to anoint a frontrunner. Cannes seemed a little fruitless in picking a favorite, and there’s been no emerging cult-hits like The Substance to sweep in indie categories. Jay Kelly seems to be a bit too wishy-washy to be taken seriously, The Testament of Ann Lee doesn’t seem to really be a contender beyond the remarkable Amanda Seyfried, and as well, there have been a number of duds already dead in the water. Most notably here are The Smashing Machine and After the Hunt, stumbling straight out of the gate. With such disappointments across the board, only three movies have come into focus as not just sure-fire nominees, but hard-to-beat frontrunners for the gold.
Yes, Jon M. Chu’s Wizard of Oz prequel and magnum opus, Wicked, was such a sensation both critically and commercially that it’s hard to imagine its sequel, slated for November 21st, could underperform in any regard. Then there’s Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, a bona fide classic, rich with both iconic imagery and dense with messaging that’s so potent it would be hard for the Academy to ignore its excellence. Finally, there’s Paul Thomas Anderson’s new political thriller, One Battle After Another, which harkens back to the powerful, anthemic thrillers of olden-day Hollywood and truly feels like a miracle to be made in the current political climate.
Even further enriching the frontrunner status of these three is that they are all inextricably linked. All three stories centralise women of color at the forefront of their narratives to convey messages about the control of power, questioning authority, and the importance of reclaiming one’s identity against oppressive systems that dare to erase it. Yes, yes, this may seem a bit extreme… how could a gothic vampire epic, a musical fantasy, and a political thriller all share DNA? But they really do, and to have such vastly opposing genres all tackling the same subject matter shows its current pressing epidemic within Hollywood. In short, this is the first wave of films by Hollywood to be combative against a new political regime desperate to strip Hollywood of its artistic integrity and DEI practices.
As the figureheads of these movements we have: Chase Infiniti’s powerful debut cinematic performance, a young woman drafted into a political war forced to fight for her life and for her identity in the middle of a race war. Then there’s Cynthia Erivo in Wicked, an allegorical tale of racial oppression and how one woman had to be brave enough to stand up against a regime that enforced such oppression. Finally, there’s the entire cast of Sinners, who come together to show the joy found in Black culture and music that was tried to be erased in the Jim Crow South era populated by the KKK. These performances represent the backbones of their respective films and act as powerful leaders as to what standing up for injustice can look like.
WICKED
Let’s first deep dive into Wicked, the 20-years-in-the-making adaptation of the most powerful and popular show in Broadway history. The story uses an allegorical greenness to show the “othering” of Elphaba Thropp within Oz, a literal woman of color who is ostracised and scapegoated by the government for having opposing political beliefs and standing up for what she believes in.
Wicked was powerful for everyone. As I was leaving my theater in Ireland, older grown men with grey hair right down to the little six-year-old beside me in her Glinda merch had tears in their eyes witnessing this story unfold. That’s because it’s the classic story of segregation and asks the audience, whether that be a 70-year-old man or a 7-year-old girl, to put themselves into the shoes of someone who has been “othered” and feel her pain, sadness, and grief at not being understood by the world. It begs the audience not to remain complicit in that pain but to stand up and question the legitimacy of the regimes that enforce this kind of ‘witch-hunting’ of certain indivudals.
ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER
This leads us nicely into One Battle After Another. Another 20-years-in-the-making epic that features a sprawling cast and decades’ worth of oppression and fight for an ANTIFA-type group daring to stand up to the oppressive American regime. At the center is 16-year-old Willa, excellently portrayed by Chase Infiniti, who, like Elphaba, doesn’t quite fit in the world that she is meant to. She wears odd clothes, she gets odd stares at dances, and it’s because, like Elphaba, she has the higher calling to be something more, to be defiant of systems that oppress us. Like Elphaba, she ends up becoming a symbol of rebellion and lives on the run in order to ensure that someone is always maintaining the fight against authority and power.
SINNERS
Then there’s Sinners, Ryan Coogler’s gothic horror epic that was yet another passion project years in the making. What best summarises this movie is its now-famous one-shot scene in which we see the musical number transform into a decade-sprawling mosaic of culture, art, and performance. It shows the unity in culture and the power that comes from being powerfully attuned to oneself, and then as it pans out to show the future of the barn burning from the vampires/the KKK members, it then ties back into both Wicked and One Battle After Another. So too, as they brandished Chase Infiniti as a mutt in One Battle After Another, and Elphaba as “the green one,” the oppressive regime of the white characters is desperate to erase the culture that the Mississippi locals have cultivated. Moreover, Stack’s final stand against the KKK in the final act, in which he slaughters them, can be reminiscent of the Defying Gravity sequence in how that is finally the central character taking back agency and authority from a system that has suppressed them for so long.
So yes, despite being wrapped in different packaging, these movies all exist in a dialogue with one another in showing that, especially now, standing up against oppression, questioning authority, and not letting others define your sense of self by their standards is more important than it has ever been. Liberation does not come with a flick of a hand or with the signing of a paper… it’s ugly, bloody, and more than often not always going to go the ways in which it is most helpful. The three films in their own way show this: whether it’s vampire bites, ballroom stand-ups, or bloody car chases, they all do not shy away from the current reality we are living in. As such, One Battle After Another, Wicked, and Sinners are not just deserving of their forthcoming Oscar nominations for the excellence of their filmmaking, but for the excellence in what their messaging is bringing to the world.
— Darragh Evans