If by January, there are ten best candidates for the best films, we are in a year hell.
Photo: Warner Bros / Courtoisie Everett Collection
Apparently, each spring brings a critical and commercial success which captures the cinematographic community and defies the voters of the award to find room for the Oscar season. Sometimes this film is All everywhere at the same time; Sometimes it is Challenge. This year, it’s Ryan Coogler SinnersCurrently making the front page of the newspapers on its historically drop from the second week to the box office: it only fell 6%, which never happens. (Somewhere at around 50% is more typical.)
SinnersMassive word of mouth is the history of spring, and he cemented the place of coogling as a heir to Christopher Nolan-a director who has transformed the success of superheroes in his own distinct brand of ambitious adult blockbusters. It is Nolan who, more than a decade ago, indirectly inirect the academy to extend the best image field in the hope of bringing larger features in the Oscar fold, and Coogling could be on the right track to become the last beneficiary. Recent seasons have seen films like Wicked And Top Gun: Maverick Win seats in the category of the best image at the back of the Boffo boxo, and none of them had the pedigree that coogulating, the three previous films of which won 13 Oscar nominations in total, brings to Sinners.
Now there is an obvious warning that we must manage immediately: Sinners is a vampire thriller and a shameless thriller. It is a sexy, sweaty and sometimes disorderly film – hardly the type of film you imagine when you think “future nominated from the Oscars”. But as an expert, I try to remember that the limits of what constitutes an “Oscar film” has quickly developed in recent years. We live in a world where Eaao can earn the greatest price, where Barbie And The area of interest can sit next to each other in the best image, and where The substance can receive major appointments. This requires an open mind from forecasts. Now the only section to find out if something is an Oscar film is, Do people answer it? And undoubtedly, people respond to Sinners. It is too early in the calendar to make guarantees on how next season will get rid of, but I will say this: if by January, there are ten stronger competitors, we are in a year hell.
Like all contenders for commercial registration, Sinners I will have to nail a gesture that I like to call “Prestige Pivot”, convince voters that it is not only the right time in the cinema, but a serious work of art that deserves to be considered. Useful, even the most relaxed spectator can say that Sinners is not “fair” a vampire film. Coogling clearly has a lot in his mind – black culture being captured and merchant, the ambivalent relationship of black creators with white money, even the linked links between black history and Irish – and these fleshy themes should help the film to transcend the traditional flaw of the academy with horror. It is also important that Sinners is an entirely original story, if personally important to coogerate that he has negotiated an agreement for his rights to return to him in 25 years. Above all, after a series of inexplicably negative commercial titles around its raw opening week, the film has already become a cause. This week, VarietyClayton Davis established the glove, the almost demanding voters take it seriously as a film Oscar: “Sinners Does not ask for the voting of the academy. This requires reflection. »»
Assuming Sinners Can pierce the veil separating prestige and trade, the strongest pieces in the film will likely come to the categories of crafts. Given the subject, the nominations in sound and an original song seem likely, with “I Lied to you”, the Raphael Saadiq co-written which collects the sequence outside competition of the film, feeling as the best bet of the latter. Production designer Hannah Beachler, costume designer Ruth E. Carter and composer Ludwig Görasson all won the Oscars for their work on Coogler’s Black pantherAnd the three should again be in the mixture. (Carter can deserve another trophy just for outings in this credits scene.) They could be joined by the editor -in -chief Michael P. Shawver, whose unconventional rhythms accelerate tension, and the director of photography Autumn Durald Arkapaw, whose wide screen visques transmit the beauty of the Black South.
As with most blockbusters, interim recognition will be more difficult. Michael B. Jordan does a good job subtly differentiating smoke and pile twins, but this type of performance of action heroes rarely finds the favor of the Academy. There can be a way in the support actor for Miles Caton, 20, a real discovery that could benefit from the fact that, like many recent support nominees, he is in fact the example of the film. But given Oscar’s usual reluctance to the appointment of young men, I wonder if the stronger game could be Delroy Lindo, who plays a graying bluesman. Not only Lindo has a solid case for the career appointment that escaped him for Spike Lee DA 5 BloodsThere is history on its side: the films of Coogler previously collected names for veterans Sylvester Stallone of Creed and Angela Bassett of Black Panther: Wakanda forever.
Then there is the new Oscar category for the best casting. When I ask the casting directors what qualities they would like the trophy to reward, some say a well balanced set, some say that the discoveries, and others mention the degree of difficulty in finding actors who can also sing and dance. Sinners a The three, which could make it a competitor for the inaugural year of the category – especially since its casting director, Francine Maisler, is a legend of the industry on which has worked more than a dozen 12 years of slave And Bird.
If you are looking for reasons to be lowered, you can find it. Consider the case of another black author working in the horror space, Jordan Peele. After winning the original scenario for To go outThe follow -up of Peele We And No were both whites by the academy. As SinnersThese films were extremely successful efforts published outside the usual Oscar corridor, and despite the efforts of criticism groups, everyone has lost itself in the end of year shuffle. There will also be questions about the question of whether Sinners Passes enough emotional impact to hit voters in their hearts, generally a necessary quality for a major competitor. In addition, as the Academy becomes more and more global, SinnersRelatively derisory international gross ($ 40 million to date, against around $ 135 million at national level) could be a sign that non -American voters may not answer in the same way.
However, it is also valid to note that We And No used many more slippery metaphors than Sinnerswhose meanings should be easier for voters of the Oscars to master. The problem of emotions could be attenuated if enough viewers remain for the scene of median claims, which adds an unexpected point and sends the spectator to a melancholic note.
The question of whether Sinners Not only can crack the best image, but becoming a real high -end competitor is largely a timing problem and cannot be answered today. If Coogler is indeed the next Nolan, it is Sinners her CreationWho entered the image and the script and won some craft trophies? Is it his DunkirqueWho has earned the filmmaker his nod of the long -awaited staging? Or is it his OppenheimerThe mastodon of the box office which becomes simply undeniable? The latter can be too optimistic, if only because enough voters could feel that the director, who is not yet 40 years old, was still due to pay his contributions. But at the beginning of the year, who can say with certainty?
What I can say is that the film should probably benefit from an underestimated factor in the award race: the support of the studio. The presidents of Warner Bros. Pam Abdy and Michael Deluca have received a lot of anonymous backing on the agreement they have given to coogex, and now that their bet has borne fruit, they have all the incitement in the world to finance a win of end -of -year victory. It is not only “for your consideration”, it is also “told you so”.
