Why One Battle After Another Won Best Picture

"This was not a case of festival fever. It was early September, and most of the critical Establishment had already decamped to TIFF - Indiewire's David Ehrlich showed up to the screening with a roller bag on his way to the airport - so the theater was less than a quarter full. And it was not a case of being influenced by those around me."

"Not when Hamnet won the Best Drama Globe, not when Sinners broke the record for most nominations by a single film, and not even when the Sinners cast won a surprise SAG trophy and pundits everywhere started talking about a "vibe shift." For perhaps the first time in my life, my initial judgement proved correct: OBAA won six of the 13 awards it was up for, including a trifecta for PTA in Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Picture."

"It Presciently Nailed the Vibe of Trump 2.0. Here's what I would have written had I not entered my Bob Ferguson era earlier than expected. What Get Out did for the first Tru"

A critic experienced an immediate conviction upon first viewing One Battle After Another that the film would win Best Picture, despite viewing it in a sparsely attended September screening before major festival season. This early prediction proved accurate when the film won six of thirteen nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay for Paul Thomas Anderson. The critic maintained unwavering confidence throughout awards season despite competing narratives, including Hamnet's Golden Globe win and Sinners' record nomination count. The film's success stemmed from both immediately apparent qualities and factors that emerged throughout the season, with particular resonance in its cultural commentary on contemporary political circumstances.

Read at Vulture