Key Takeaways
- Slate's chief movie critic Dana Stevens identified Ryan Coogler's 'Sinners' and Paul Thomas Anderson's 'One Battle After Another' as pivotal films of 2025.
- Both films are characterized as "Resistance Blockbusters," embedding thoughtful ideas about struggle and liberation within exciting genre narratives.
- 'Sinners' employs a vampire horror narrative to metaphorically examine American history, oppression, and cultural consumption.
- 'One Battle After Another' is a prescient, genre-blending film exploring political resistance and migrant issues in a dystopian future.
Deep Dive
- Slate's chief movie critic, Dana Stevens, selected 'Sinners' by Ryan Coogler and 'One Battle After Another' by Paul Thomas Anderson as two films exemplifying 2025.
- The process of creating year-end movie lists involves considering cinematic trends, cultural impact, and the future of theatrical releases.
- Stevens noted the challenge of selecting a single film to represent the entire year, a task more complex than a top 10 list.
- Ryan Coogler's 'Sinners,' set in 1925 Mississippi, uses vampires—including white immigrants and Ku Klux Klan members—to metaphorically represent America consuming various cultures.
- A scene depicting black and white vampires dancing together is interpreted as symbolizing slavery and Jim Crow oppression due to the black vampires' non-consensual transformation.
- The film is a contender for movie of the year, emphasizing messages of struggle and resistance, particularly through a scene featuring historical and future musical figures dancing.
- The guest suggests 'Sinners' combines big ideas with cinematic beauty, highlighting joy, pleasure, and community as essential for political struggle.
- Paul Thomas Anderson's 'One Battle After Another' is loosely based on a Thomas Pynchon novel, with its first half following a revolutionary group organizing to liberate migrant camps.
- The second half shifts to an action thriller where a former organizer (Leonardo DiCaprio) lives in hiding for 16 years, targeted by a military commander (Sean Penn) pursuing his daughter.
- The film blends multiple genres, including comedy, action-adventure, and political commentary, earning a Golden Globe nomination as a comedy/musical.
- The film's prescience is highlighted, extrapolating current societal issues like political resistance and migrant liberation into a recognizable dystopian future.
- A subplot features a character named Sensei (Venicio Del Toro) running a "Latino Harriet Tubman operation" to house migrants, paralleling current sanctuary city efforts.
- The movie explores conspiracy elements, hinting at a white supremacist group called the "Christmas Adventurers" with ties to government and business power.
- Praised as a cinematic triumph, the film depicts menacing government surveillance, utilizing an intricate "show, don't tell" approach and precise pacing.
- The guest expressed hope that the critical and box office success of original, big-budget films like 'One Battle After Another' could encourage studios to take similar risks.
- Both 'Sinners' and 'One Battle After Another' are characterized by "blockbuster existentialism," integrating thoughtful ideas into exciting genre narratives without being overly expository.
- While no single movie can fix industry-wide problems, the "Barbenheimer" phenomenon demonstrated the power of major movie weekends to boost theater attendance and revenue.
- Concerns were raised about potential studio acquisitions and the importance of theaters as a social function, emphasizing the need for investment in artists and original films.