Who Will Win Big at the Oscars?

"From its opening scene-a shakedown of Armando Solimões (Wagner Moura) by local authorities at a rural gas station-Kleber Mendonça Filho immerses viewers in a world of casual corruption and clandestine violence endemic to authoritarian rule."

"Paul Thomas Anderson's film proves that these more central divisions-between freaks and squares, parents and children, the rigid brokers of authority and subversive agents of liberation-can be mapped across American history."

"Vampires, with their transgressive hunger for flesh and obsession with progeny, prove to be a potent vehicle for Ryan Coogler's fascination with bloodlines. Although he doesn't quite reinvent the classic creature, and his ambition gets ahead of him, the world into which he unleashes his vampires is rich with tensions and history."

"If I Had Legs I'd Kick You endorses the well-seasoned argument that women will be judged more fiercely than their male counterparts for their parental failures, gesturing at a constellation of such case studies."

This Oscar weekend preview highlights several nominated films through critical perspectives. Kleber Mendonça Filho's film immerses viewers in casual corruption and violence under authoritarian rule. Paul Thomas Anderson adapts Pynchon's Vineland, mapping historical divisions between authority and liberation. Ryan Coogler uses vampires to explore bloodlines and social tensions. Sirāt depicts ravers learning self-reliance outside traditional structures. If I Had Legs I'd Kick You examines gendered parental judgment without conventional resolution. Another film follows a protagonist's escalating financial arbitrage leading to cascading disasters. These nominees represent varied approaches to contemporary storytelling and social commentary.

Read at The Nation