The Movies Against MeToo

It’s happening again. The Motion Picture Academy is holding a ceremony to honor its contributions to the global imagination. Competing for the main prize will be Ryan Coogler’s Sinners (with a record sixteen nominations) and Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another. The first is a vampire period piece about the history of the blues, perhaps more profitably approached as a study in schizophrenia. The second looks for laughs in a world whose last hope against Nazi Republican Christmas-loving rule is a network of sexually irresistible left-wing terrorists who place their fate in the hands of a white male ally. Critics laud both for their firm grasp of our cultural moment.