The Daily

Oscars 2026: Who Will Win, and Who Should Win?

35 min
Mar 8, 2026about 1 month ago
Listen to Episode
Summary

New York Times chief movie critic Manohla Dargis discusses the 2026 Oscar nominees, highlighting standout performances and films. She analyzes frontrunners like Jessie Buckley in 'Hamnet' and breakthrough films 'Sinners' and 'One Battle After Another' that demonstrate Hollywood's creative resurgence despite industry challenges.

Insights
  • Despite industry turmoil, 2025 produced uncommonly good films that found audiences, suggesting moviegoers want well-made films that address contemporary reality
  • The Academy continues to favor big, emotionally demanding performances over subtle character work
  • Major studios took creative risks with socially conscious films like 'Sinners' and 'One Battle After Another' that resonated with audiences
  • International cinema is gaining recognition at the Oscars with nuanced performances from Norwegian and Brazilian films
  • Audiences are responding to films that feel urgent and speak to the American experience rather than escapist blockbusters
Trends
Studios investing in socially conscious filmmaking that addresses contemporary American issuesInternational films gaining prominence in major Oscar categoriesAudiences gravitating toward reality-based storytelling over pure escapismActor-driven narratives focusing on complex, morally ambiguous charactersHistorical dramas exploring themes of oppression and resistance gaining critical acclaimBiographical films about artists and cultural figures becoming Oscar contendersGenre-blending films combining horror, drama, and social commentaryPeriod pieces examining American cultural and political history
People
Manohla Dargis
New York Times chief movie critic analyzing Oscar nominees and film industry trends
Jessie Buckley
Actress frontrunner for Best Actress Oscar for her role as Shakespeare's wife in 'Hamnet'
Renate Reinsve
Norwegian actress nominated for Best Actress for subtle performance in 'Sentimental Value'
Timothée Chalamet
Actor nominated for Best Actor for playing table tennis champion in 'Marty Supreme'
Michael B. Jordan
Actor nominated for Best Actor for dual role as identical twins in 'Sinners'
Ethan Hawke
Actor nominated for Best Actor for portraying lyricist Lorenz Hart in 'Blue Moon'
Leonardo DiCaprio
Actor starring in Best Picture contender 'One Battle After Another' directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
Ryan Coogler
Director of Best Picture contender 'Sinners' praised for cinematic genius and historical storytelling
Paul Thomas Anderson
Director of Best Picture contender 'One Battle After Another' featuring revolutionary themes
Quotes
"Despite all the forces arrayed against Hollywood, it was kind of a magical year. Great movies were made and audiences found them mostly."
Manohla Dargis
"The industry might be completely a mess, but the movies are there, and they're wonderful."
Manohla Dargis
"If there's snot running down your face, you probably will get an Oscar."
Manohla Dargis
"These movies feel urgent to us. They feel really urgent to me, and they really be about what it is to be an American at this moment in time."
Manohla Dargis
Full Transcript
5 Speakers
Speaker A

Say hello to the all new Alexa, our smartest, most proactive AI assistant yet. Chat naturally about anything and watch your to do list disappear. Planning date night One conversation handles everything from dinner reservations to entertainment. Alexa learns your style, anticipates what's next, and puts thousands of services at your fingertips. Experience AI that's all yours. And now Alexa is free with prime on your Amazon devices like echo and Fire TV.

0:00

Speaker B

Amazon.com Alexaplus I've always wanted to ask you this question. Do film critics like yourself actually get excited about the Oscars?

0:26

Speaker C

I have a love hate relationship with the Oscars. I mean, I've watched, I think, probably almost every single Oscar since I was a child. I often spend the entire time cursing at the screen and speed dialing friends and then cheering wildly when one of my favorite movies wins something, you know. So the Oscar Oscars are terrible unless they're right.

0:38

Speaker B

Which means unless they pick my movies, you know. From the New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is the Daily on Sunday. The 98th annual Academy Awards are one week from today. Of the untold hundreds of films that were released in the United States last year, some 50 or so are nominated for Oscars. And according to critics and industry insiders, those movies are uncommonly good. Despite all the forces arrayed against Hollywood, it was kind of a magical year. Great movies were made and audiences found them mostly. So with one week to go before the Oscars, we asked Manola Dargis, the Times chief movie critic, to to come in and talk about 2025's unmissable performances and unskippable movies. So take notes, even if they're just mental notes, and plan your watching very wisely for the next seven days. It's Sunday, March 8th. Manola, welcome to the Sunday Daily.

1:00

Speaker C

Thank you, Michael. It's nice to be here.

2:18

Speaker B

This is our first ever conversation, you and I.

2:19

Speaker C

What took us so long?

2:23

Speaker B

Great question. So if you had to pick a single word to describe this year's Oscar nominees, what would that word be? One word, that's the exercise here.

2:24

Speaker C

Surprising, you know, and why it's surprising on some level is that there are so many good movies that are up for awards. I mean, two of the movies are the top of my top 10, you know, sinners in one battle after another, you know, and I think so you

2:38

Speaker B

and the Oscars in sync this year?

2:55

Speaker C

What happened? I mean, yes. So despite all of the dire warnings and broadcasts and articles that are out there, the movie industry is not dead. And moviemaking and movies are certainly not dead. It's kind of like think of the ending of Carrie when the hand pops out of the grave. That is American cinema. You know, it's back, baby. The industry might be completely a mess, but the movies are there, and they're wonderful.

2:57

Speaker B

Okay, so, Manola, we're here to talk about some of the movies our listeners should definitely plan to watch before the Oscars ceremony next Sunday. I was thinking that the way we could do that is to talk about some of the frontrunners for Oscars and then some of the actors and the performances you personally loved. So basically, the will win versus should win tension. So let's start with the actresses competing for best actress in a leading role. Who do you think is likely to win there?

3:25

Speaker C

Well, I think the consensus is that Jessie Buckley, who plays Agnes, William Shakespeare's wife in Hamnet, that she is going to win.

4:00

Speaker D

He knows what you may be able to. I'm not being hasty. He needs more.

4:09

Speaker C

He needs proper work.

4:12

Speaker B

The man needs proper work.

4:13

Speaker C

He cannot do. Just run away.

4:14

Speaker D

This little thing. You crush him.

4:16

Speaker C

I think it would be very shocking. It would be probably the major upset of the evening if she did. If she did not win.

4:19

Speaker B

What is it about her performance in Hamnet that you think makes her the front runner?

4:26

Speaker C

Well, it's a kind of classic role. It's about the woman behind the man. In this case, the man is William Shakespeare.

4:30

Speaker D

What are you writing? Nothing of note. It's never nothing.

4:37

Speaker C

Usually the women are introduced in a movie classically, and then they wave at their husband as their husband goes off and has his adventure, you know, and in this case, we are seeing him through her. And they fall in love, they have children, they build a home. Part of the richness of the character is the character goes through all the feelings. You know, we have the love of the young sexy man, Will, played by Paul Mescal, and then we have mother love, and then we have marital drama, and then we have tragedy. So as an actress, Buckley is really, really has to go through every single thing, and she has to bring us along. And she is really the character who is bringing us through all of the different emotional registers.

4:42

Speaker D

I will not have my baby in this house. Not in this house.

5:29

Speaker C

There's a harrowing birth scene where she's giving birth to her twins. And the scene takes you through every possible motion, you know, where you're like, oh, someone's going to give birth. And, oh, what's happening?

5:33

Speaker D

She's starting again. You're having twins, my girl.

5:50

Speaker C

And the birth is very, very Difficult. And it seems like it may end in tragedy.

5:54

Speaker D

Why is she not crying? Why is she not crying?

6:00

Speaker C

And she takes us through every single moment as her face is contorting. But there is love and there is also serenity in there.

6:06

Speaker E

Yes.

6:14

Speaker B

Y.

6:15

Speaker C

And that is really beautiful to see.

6:19

Speaker D

Mm.

6:21

Speaker B

And then, of course, there is the tragedy you alluded to just a little bit ago, the grief that she embodies, and it's almost animalistic.

6:22

Speaker C

What? The tragedy, which I will address, and if people don't want to listen to it, they can, you know, put their fingers in their ears for a moment, is that one of their twins, their only son, Hamnet, dies while Will is in London working on a play. And Agnes resents him for being away, even though she was the one who encouraged him to go away.

6:34

Speaker D

He was in agony. Agnes cried and he cried. Agnes cried and he cried. And his little body was wracked in pain. Don't shush me. He was so scared, and you weren't here.

6:57

Speaker C

And just remember, the Academy loves big performances. They like really, really big. And they like watching other actors go through it.

7:09

Speaker B

Right. The Academy roots for Shirley MacLaine in terms of Endearment, and it always will.

7:17

Speaker C

Yes. You know, if there's snot running down your face, you probably will get an Oscar.

7:22

Speaker B

Okay, so is Jessie Buckley your favorite of the nominated performances, or is there somebody else who is perhaps more deserving?

7:30

Speaker C

I'm very fond of Renata Renzave, who is a Norwegian actress, and she's in a movie called Sentimental Value. It's a more subtle and I think a more complicated performance than Buckley's because the character is more complicated.

7:40

Speaker B

Well, tell us about the character and the film.

8:06

Speaker C

The movie is focused on a family. The father is a filmmaker played by Stellan Skarsgrd.

8:08

Speaker D

The camera's here on her now. This is crucial, the expression she has here.

8:16

Speaker C

And his daughter Nora, played by Renata Rencive, is an up and coming theater actress. He wants to make a new movie, and he wants her to star in it, and she does not because they have a very fraught relationship. So instead, he hires an American actress played by Elle Fanning. And over the course of the movie, the Elle Fanning character basically tries to turn herself into a version of the daughter. Maybe I should have a Norwegian accent like Ingrid.

8:25

Speaker D

I don't have an accent, do I?

9:01

Speaker C

And Renatarendseve is just a. It's a tour de force performance, but it is a quiet tour de force performance.

9:03

Speaker B

Talk us through one of these quiet moments that makes This a tour de force performance.

9:11

Speaker C

There's a great scene when Elle Fanning's character goes to visit Renata Renciville at the theater where she's doing a play. Hey.

9:16

Speaker D

Hi. So nice to meet you.

9:25

Speaker C

The two women are seated in the auditorium of the theater, so it's pretty intimate. But the director does something really interesting. He puts Elle Fanning in the foreground of the shot. So she's really close to us, yet she's out of focus. Slightly out of focus. But the other woman, the Renata Rensving character, she's really crisp, and she is listening to Elle Fanning talk. Just keep thinking that he made it, he made a mistake. And she's talking about her struggles with the role that the Renata Rensvie character should have taken but turned down. The more that I study her, the more lost I feel trying to be her. It's like her sad as an actress. Renata Ren has what I think of as, like, great emotional transparency. And we are watching her face ripple with emotions as she listens to the other woman. So you see her curiosity, her wonder, her difficulty. And because the filmmaker is not telling us what to think and how to feel, we come to that ourselves. It's a very beautiful moment, a very emotionally honest moment.

9:28

Speaker D

Well, he's. Very difficult person, but he is a really.

10:44

Speaker B

So in the particulars, these two roles have a lot in common. Both films have this overlapping focus on the theater. They both have some real tragedy. But these are two very different from what you're saying. Performances.

10:53

Speaker C

Right? I mean, if I was gonna, you know, to use an analogy, one is a kind of thundering storm of a performance, and the other one is a kind of gentle. And sometimes the rain gets a little heavy, but it's not. There's no lightning and thunder. It's a slow reveal of a performance.

11:07

Speaker B

Well, Manola, we are going to take a very quick break, and when we come back, we're going to talk about who is likely to win and who should win when it comes to best actor. We'll be right back. Foreign.

11:27

Speaker A

Say hello to Alexa and see how the experience is tailored to you. Alexa learns your preferences to serve you better. Planning a vacation? Ask Alexa to recommend a trip to check off your bucket list, Use Alexa to find the name of that song you love, discover new favorite shows or recipes, and do so much more. Ask Alexa anything. And now Alexa is free with prime on your Amazon devices like echo and Fire TV. Get started at Amazon.com alexaplus I'm Wesley Morris.

11:51

Speaker B

I'm A critic for the New York Times, and I'm the host of a podcast called Cannonball. We're gonna talk about that song you can't get out of your head, that TV show you watched and can't stop thinking about, and the movie that you saw when you were a kid that made you who you are, whether you like it or not.

12:21

Speaker D

I was so embarrassed the whole time because it's a bad film, and I still love it.

12:39

Speaker B

You can find Cannonball on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts. So, Manola, best actors, Best lead performance by a man in the last year who is likely to win that Oscar.

12:44

Speaker C

Ugh, this is such a hard one, because it's a really unusually great slate. I like all of the performances. However, if I had to be forced to narrow it down, I would say it could be Timothee Chalamet in Marty Supreme, Michael B. Jordan for his dual roles in Sinners and. Or Ethan Hawke in Blue Moon.

13:06

Speaker B

Okay, so what you're telling us is that perhaps our will win framework might implode a little bit here, but if that's the case, let's just talk about all three of these actors and their performances. And where do you want to start, Manola?

13:31

Speaker C

Well, let's start with Timothee Chalamet.

13:49

Speaker D

And I have tremendous respect for your money, and I know it's hard to believe, but I'm telling you, this game, it fills stadiums overseas. And it's only a matter of time before. Phil stadiums in the United States, too, before I'm staring at you from the COVID of a Wheaties box.

13:51

Speaker C

He's in this movie called Marty supreme, which is about a table tennis champion. It's after World War II. Mainly takes place in New York. It's very much about someone who is really racing toward his American dream, and he's doing it through table tennis. He's an amazing, amazing table tennis player, and he hustles on the side for money. He works in a shoe store. He's a nice boy, but he also hustles. And he's completely.

14:03

Speaker D

How could you, of all people, do this to me? The way I treat you. How could I do this to you?

14:29

Speaker E

Yes.

14:33

Speaker C

How could you know how to do it?

14:33

Speaker D

How could I do this to you? How about what you're doing to me?

14:34

Speaker C

Have you ever.

14:37

Speaker B

I mean, nice boy who impregnates a woman in the basement of the shoe store while he's supposed to be getting an old woman a pair of shoe shorts.

14:38

Speaker C

Asterisks, man, You've got to put it with Asterisks. That's what I'm saying. He's a disreputable character, as some of the most interesting characters are. I mean, it's a very aggressive performance and. And I don't know where we are in this stage of American movie going, but people just seem to have a really hard time with characters who are spiky and barbed. This is a complicated, interesting movie about what is the American dream for this very specific person. And in one of my favorite sequences.

14:44

Speaker B

Yes, tell us about one.

15:14

Speaker C

He goes after the ultimate shiksa. I mean, you know, Gwyneth Paltrow. I mean, it's just like. Like I don't even know like what her. What her identity is, but she's just like.

15:15

Speaker B

She's definitely not Jewish in this movie.

15:24

Speaker C

She's playing someone, you know, a retired actress who's married an extremely wealthy, a disgusting man. And Timothee Chalamet sees her in a hotel and just zeroes in on her.

15:26

Speaker D

K speaking. Hey, it's Marty Mauser. I'm in the Royal Suite. I saw you in the lobby yesterday.

15:38

Speaker E

Okay.

15:44

Speaker D

Yeah, we made eye contact.

15:45

Speaker C

I was being interviewed in this great scene. He's checked himself into a hotel he cannot afford. He's trying to get someone else to pay for it. And he calls her up. He just cold calls her and starts fast talking.

15:46

Speaker D

You know, I'm something of a performer too.

15:58

Speaker E

Are you?

16:00

Speaker B

Yeah.

16:01

Speaker D

You don't believe me?

16:01

Speaker C

And we see him and he just looks absurd. He's standing on his bed in his room wearing a bathrobe in his boxer shorts and socks. This is you?

16:02

Speaker D

Yeah. The Chosen One. It's a nice picture, right? Ping pong. Well, I play table tennis.

16:13

Speaker C

Yeah. And he's just talking a mile a minute, trying to seduce this woman, and she hangs up on him. He calls back and he manages to convince her I do, you know, to meet up.

16:17

Speaker D

Here's what's going to happen. I'm going to make an apple appear in that bowl. And if I do, you're going to blow off your little rendezvous.

16:28

Speaker E

No, no.

16:34

Speaker D

Come watch me play.

16:35

Speaker C

I'm. No, I'm not agreeing to anything.

16:36

Speaker B

All right.

16:38

Speaker D

We don't have to agree to anything. I'm going to do it anyway.

16:38

Speaker E

Okay.

16:39

Speaker C

And they do.

16:40

Speaker B

Do they ever.

16:42

Speaker D

I'll leave a ticket for you at the box office.

16:43

Speaker C

It's a very exuberant out there and exuberant out there performance.

16:47

Speaker B

It's a hard thing to play a character this unlikable and not make the movie totally unlikable.

16:53

Speaker C

Exactly. Right. You really need to bring in some warmth, what they call relatability and charm. And I actually think that Chalamet does do all of that. We're just not used to such abrasive heroes in American movies at this point. But I think that he's absolutely charming in this film as well.

17:01

Speaker B

I have to agree with you. Let us now turn to Michael B. Jordan and his performance in Sinners.

17:20

Speaker D

More time I spend with y', all, the less sure I am you boys are serious about it. Ain't no boys here. I just grown men with grown men money and grown men bullets.

17:28

Speaker C

In Sinners, Michael B. Jordan plays identical twins through the magic of cinema, one named Smoke and the other one named Stack.

17:39

Speaker D

We've been gone a long time, Stack. Seven years ain't long enough to forget about us.

17:47

Speaker C

It's very seamlessly done and very beautiful. Love you.

17:51

Speaker D

Love you, too. Be careful.

17:55

Speaker A

I will.

17:57

Speaker C

And they are basically gangsters, and they've returned to their hometown in the Mississippi Delta and they open a juke joint. There's a lot happening in this movie. You know, it's a horror movie specifically. There's a. You know, there's a vampire, an Irish. An ancient Irish vampire. And that vampire, it really embodies kind of a exploitation of black culture, black cultural history, you know, everything. And so the movie is incredibly ambitious.

17:58

Speaker D

No mother Everything gonna be all right now.

18:30

Speaker C

And one of the things I really love about Jordan's performance, beyond the fact that he actually is able to create two very distinct characters and make them work in a very complimentary fashion, is that he really inhabits each one and gives each very specific personality. And Smoke, there's this great scene where Smoke visits his wife.

18:38

Speaker D

How you been? No misery's worth complaining about.

19:03

Speaker C

And they haven't seen each other for a while, and they have really very painful, tragic history.

19:08

Speaker D

I ain't never saw no roots, no demons, no ghosts, no magic. Just power.

19:14

Speaker C

And it's a. Basically, you're watching two people rediscover each other.

19:24

Speaker D

How you know I ain't brave and work every route. My grandmama taught me to keep you and that crazy brother yours safe every day since you've been gone.

19:30

Speaker C

And so what you're watching is a kind of renewed courtship. You know, you're watching two people refind each other and fall in love again and then fall into each other's arms.

19:41

Speaker D

It still hurts coming back here, but I love you and I miss you.

19:54

Speaker C

And then it gets, well, smoking hot. I mean, his name is Smoke, I guess, you know.

20:07

Speaker B

Yeah, they have they have quite a profound amorous encounter?

20:13

Speaker C

Yes, it's beautifully done.

20:17

Speaker B

And just to say that is one half of the performance, because there's literally two performances in this one actor's performance in this movie.

20:20

Speaker C

Absolutely.

20:29

Speaker B

Okay. The last person in our potential likely to win Best Actor category, and he's only playing one role, is Ethan Hawke in the film Blue Moon. Okay. Best line in Casablanca.

20:31

Speaker D

Oh, nobody ever loved. Nobody loved me that much. Isn't that magnificent? Six words. Nobody ever loved me that much. And really, who's ever been loved enough? Who's ever been loved half enough? Would you get me a shot?

20:46

Speaker B

So talk about that performance.

20:59

Speaker C

Well, this is a movie largely takes place on one night, very, very important evening. It's March 31, 1943, and we are with the lyricist Lorenz Hart, who, with the composer Richard Rogers, wrote a bunch of important musicals like Powell Joey, as well as the title song, Blue Moon. At this point, though, Hart is a wreck. He's an alcoholic. And Rogers has a new partner named Oscar Hammerstein ii. And they have a new musical that Hart has just walked out of. A little thing called Oklahoma.

21:02

Speaker B

With an exclamation point, as he repeatedly

21:42

Speaker D

says throughout the film.

21:44

Speaker B

Fact.

21:46

Speaker D

Any title that feels the need for an exclamation point you want to steer clear of.

21:46

Speaker C

There's a lack of vanity here that I love in the performance, because Ethan Hawke has been made to look very sad, tragic combover. He's very short. They cheat his height all the time. He looks like he's in a suit that it looks too big for him. He looks like he, at times, is literally shrinking before our eyes. And that actually really almost seems to happen when he has a confrontation. It's friendly, but it's very needy and needling. With Richard Rogers, played by Andrew Scott.

21:52

Speaker D

I remember when I first heard about you, you were just Morty Rogers little brother. What, you were 17, 16. Yeah, I was 2312, John. Yeah, you were the wise old man on the mountain. But when I first heard you play your stuff, I knew you had it. I wasn't entirely.

22:24

Speaker C

We are just basically watching Hart kind of debase himself, groveling. And yet he's so proud.

22:40

Speaker E

Mm.

22:48

Speaker D

I'm right here, right now, ready to work.

22:49

Speaker C

And you see these warring emotions in Hawke's performance and in his face.

22:53

Speaker D

I don't need to go back to doctor's hospital, and I don't need a psychiatrist either, thank you very much. Who's we?

22:59

Speaker C

You see the face harden, soften, almost collapse in and on itself.

23:08

Speaker D

I am sorry. I Don't care if somebody attacks me. He doesn't mean anything to me, but nobody can attack me. My work, it is all I've done.

23:13

Speaker C

It's really quite remarkable. Right?

23:24

Speaker B

It is such a profoundly sad performance because you're watching someone who believe themselves to be so great and to have such an enduring legacy recognize that he's been bested. And it's very, very tragic.

23:27

Speaker C

It is. Yet at the same time, there is a lovely kind of restraint where you're not hit over the head with the tragedy. You know, Hart is very funn. He has a lacerating wit. He is an entertainer. He wants to entertain and seduce. So he is leading with a kind of enthusiasm and a brio. And at the same time, we can see the neediness and the desperation. So all of that, that little war is always there.

23:44

Speaker D

Hey, fellas, just for the record, the

24:13

Speaker B

corn is as high as an elephant's eye is the stupidest lyric in the history of American songwriting. Yes, it makes perfect sense.

24:16

Speaker C

You know, Hawk is a much greater and much more interesting actor than he was when he was cute and didn't have as many lines on his face. Some of us, you know, we improve with age. You know, his history is in his face, the lines, the age, what he's been through as a human being. Hawk is basically tapping into all that and then adding his interpretation of this man who is soon going to depart. Right.

24:24

Speaker B

Well, because I would like to maintain some version of the will versus should construct here. Who do you think should win of these three?

24:54

Speaker C

I really would like. It's more about. What I like would be Ethan Hawke. I think it's a magnificent performance, but I also think that Michael B. Jordan is wonderful. I don't, you know, it's one of these times which just again, because it's such a rich group of performances, performances that, you know, it's very, very difficult to. To do our usual binary where we should, you know,

25:05

Speaker B

Let's take a break and when we come back, we will talk about the main event, the last award or the second to last award of what is always an incredibly long evening. Which is best picture.

25:36

Speaker A

Say hello to Alexa and see how the experience is tailored to you. Alexa learns your preferences to serve you better. Planning a vacation. Ask Alexa to recommend a trip to check off your bucket list. Use Alexa to find the name of that song you love, discover new favorite shows or recipes, and do so much more. Ask Alexa anything. And now Alexa is free. With prime on your Amazon devices like echo and Fire TV, get started at Amazon.com Alexaplus hi, my name is Sandra

25:59

Speaker E

E. Garcia and I'm a reporter at the New York Times. I write for the Styles desk where we try to understand our complicated world by keeping up with culture. We want to take you to the forefront of cultural shifts and let you know why things are trending. Our subscribers make this kind of coverage possible so the New York Times can continue to highlight the stories that go beyond breaking news. Help us keep a pulse on culture by subscribing@nytimes.com subscribe

26:29

Speaker B

Manola we are now at the best picture phase of this conversation. And you had mentioned earlier that this was a year when big studios took some big risks. And two of those risky films which you had mentioned, one battle after Another and Sinners ended up being films that you really like as a critic, which is pretty great on top of the fact that both did quite well at the box office. So let's talk about these two films as best picture contenders. And I think because we already talked about Sinners, let's start with one battle after another.

26:57

Speaker D

Listen, I gotta. Adrian, I got mortars, I got tear gas, I got whatever you guys need, but I'm a little unclear as to what the plan is. I need some direction. Don't be unclear. I got a plan for us.

27:39

Speaker C

What is it? This is a Paul Thomas Anderson experience. It follows a group of would be revolutionaries, including Leonardo DiCaprio, who's actually wonderful in this movie. And he plays Bob. Bob is a total burnout. You know, he's just basically drinking and getting stoned on his couch while he's raising his, his, his daughter. Willa.

27:51

Speaker D

How did you get home? Well, with my car. You drove. So what? What are you, my babysitter?

28:15

Speaker C

What?

28:22

Speaker D

What?

28:22

Speaker B

What?

28:22

Speaker D

Yeah, I know how to drink and drive, honey. I know what I'm doing. I, I didn't.

28:23

Speaker C

He has a nemesis played. Also a wonderful performance, Sean Penn, who basically goes after them. And we follow Leonardo DiCaprio's character as he basically goes underground and tries to rescue his daughter who's been taken. And he doesn't know where his daughter is.

28:27

Speaker D

You have her phone number, man? No, everybody knows she has a phone number. Everybody knows she has a. Why didn't she tell me she has a phone? Maybe she didn't want to. No, no, she's not allowed to have a goddamn phone. Well, maybe she didn't want you to get mad. I don't get mad. I don't get mad about anything anymore.

28:45

Speaker C

It's a really shocking movie in some ways because it is about People who believe that there is a better America and are fighting for it, but they're actually. Some call. Characterize them as terrorists. Other people would just call them as revolutionaries. And I think that one of the reasons that it really kind of grabbed audiences is it seemed to be speaking to conflicts that we are all reading about.

28:59

Speaker D

There's about 250, 275 people in there.

29:24

Speaker B

It's hard.

29:27

Speaker D

It's hard to count.

29:27

Speaker E

We need to be.

29:28

Speaker C

The opening sequence, you find, begins with a bunch of revolutionaries basically rescuing some people who have been seized by the United States. And I just remember when I first saw the movie, everyone got really, really quiet in the audience. I think everyone was shocked because it felt like you were almost watching a dramatization of something that had just happened yesterday.

29:29

Speaker B

But for all that seriousness, it's also a rather goofy movie at times.

30:00

Speaker C

Oh, gloriously so. I mean, it is not a solemn eat your vegetables movie. You know, it is a movie that is kind of suggesting that the other side of tragedy is comedy. That however tragic this can seem, it's also goofy. There's a great scene where DiCapro's character is now on the run. He is trying to connect with his old comrades, and he makes a phone call.

30:06

Speaker D

Rise and shine. Bat an eyelash.

30:32

Speaker B

Good morning.

30:36

Speaker C

There's a series of codes, and he forgets what he's supposed to tell the other person.

30:38

Speaker D

What time is it?

30:42

Speaker B

Ah, fuck.

30:44

Speaker D

You know, I don't. I don't. I don't remember that part. All right, let's just not nitpick over the password stuff. Look, this is Bob.

30:46

Speaker C

You can't remember, man, it's been so long. Speak.

30:51

Speaker D

I only remember half of this shit and this stupid fucking hotline, which was a fucking miracle. So stop fucking with me and give me the fucking rendezvous point. Well, maybe you should have said, man,

30:55

Speaker C

I just can't remember. I just need. And it's gloriously funny.

31:04

Speaker B

Call us back when you have the time.

31:08

Speaker E

What?

31:10

Speaker D

Did you.

31:11

Speaker C

You just.

31:11

Speaker D

Did you just fucking hang up on me, you fucking liberal fucking prick?

31:12

Speaker B

Okay, so that's one battle after another when it comes to sinners. Manola, since you've already extolled its virtues through the performance of Michael B. Jordan, I wonder if you can talk us through a scene or a dimension of the film beyond that performance that helps people understand why it may win Best Picture.

31:17

Speaker D

Oh, ho, ho, ho, ho. Hold up, hold up. Tell who you are. We frown.

31:38

Speaker C

There is a scene in the middle of the movie that I think is a masterpiece.

31:44

Speaker D

I'm Sammy Moore.

31:49

Speaker C

And I think it really displays Coogler's cinematic genius.

31:50

Speaker D

Sugar Copper from Sunflower Plantation.

31:54

Speaker C

And part of what makes this movie so moving, because it's not just that it is an entertaining movie, it's an extremely rich movie in terms of how it is dealing with history.

31:58

Speaker D

Something I've been wanting to tell you for a long time.

32:12

Speaker C

It's a scene where we're. Now, the dream joint is open, and there's a young bluesman named Sammy. And he starts to play a song. And the camera starts moving around the room as he is singing. And suddenly you hear a little bit of electric guitar. And then you see. See somebody who looks like he could be out of a 1970s funk band. And then the camera just keeps on going as this blues song is playing. And you see B boys, you see a DJ at a turntable. You actually see a modern ballerina, Time and space kind of collapse. And you get a sense of the great arc of history that takes us from Africa to Mississippi and all of the culture and all the people that have led us to this moment and are pointing us toward the future, where a young filmmaker named Ryan Coogler will pick up a camera and make one of the great American movies. It's part of what's so interesting is that Sinners and One Battle After Another are two movies that are speaking to the American experience in a way that American cinema doesn't necessarily do, particularly from the big studios. These movies feel urgent to us. You know, I mean, they feel really urgent to me, and they really be about what it is to be an American at this moment in time. And I think that's part of why audiences have been so receptive to them as well. Right.

32:17

Speaker B

So in both Sinners and One Battle After Another, we've been talking about films that a lot of people saw. I wonder, to end our Best Picture conversation, if there is a nominee that maybe wasn't as big of a hit, but something that you think our listeners really should see and understand.

34:13

Speaker C

Oh, well, it's the Secret Agent, which is a Brazilian film from one of my favorite directors. And also, I just want to say, former film critic Cleber Mendoza Filho. This is a movie that opens in 1977 during the military dictatorship, and we are following a former professor who has basically gone underground. One of the absolute delights of this movie is that you. I can guarantee you will never know what is gonna happen next, which is just absolutely so welcome. It goes from moments of outrageous, almost kind of burlesque comedy. There is literally a severed leg jumping around and kicking people in this movie. But it's also about what is it like to live under oppression, political oppression. And it's about coming together with like minded souls in order to survive. It's very moving on that level. He is a wonderful filmmaker and people should really check this movie out.

34:34

Speaker B

So Manola, when you look at this slate of movies, and particularly these movies like Sinners and One Battle after another, what do they leave you feeling exactly about the always in jeopardy future of Hollywood?

35:45

Speaker C

Well, I think, you know, one of the things that I would hope is that movie executives would look at this lineup and look at the success of these movies and say, gee whiz, actually maybe people want movies that are very well made and say something about the world that we live in. Maybe actually we don't want to watch movies that are completely divorced from reality the way that so many American, you know, big, the big blockbusters often are. I think it would be really nice if the movie executives got in line with the movie audiences at some point.

36:02

Speaker B

I feel like this is going to be the first Oscars in a very long time where you may not actually be screaming at the television.

36:36

Speaker C

I can always call you Michael and start yelling if you need me to. I am available for speed dial anger, you know.

36:44

Speaker B

Well, I really can't wait for that Manola.

36:54

Speaker C

Sure.

36:59

Speaker B

Thank you so very much. This was a real treat. Today's episode was produced by alex baron with help from luke van der plug and tina antolini. It was edited by wendy doerr and engineered by sophia landman. It contains music by dan powell, pat mccusker and marian lozano. Our production manager is franny carr toth. That's it for the daily on Sunday. I'm michael mobaro. Se to mar.

36:59

Speaker A

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37:50