This year's Best Picture category at the 98th Academy Awards was stacked! While I have yet to watch Frankenstein, Marty Supreme, or F1 (I've recently come to resent racing) I thoroughly enjoyed all the other movies nominated. That being be said, some part of me feels that Sinners was robbed after having the most nominations in history. However, I cannot deny that One Battle After Another resonated with me in so many different ways, both personally and professionally. Which honestly is not that separate. As a Mexican man married to a Black woman from the South, all I could do was nod my head at the ease of which those in power can just snatch a life off the street, or attempt to erase them entirely.
Spending the last 10 years focused on digital accessibility, every day, every meeting is basically one battle after another. A fight for the civil rights of a community that I don't totally belong to yet. But beyond just co-opting the title or presenting a very watered-down version of the premise, I feel I have encountered almost all the characters of the film in some fashion or other.
There is the hardcore hero that gives up their family for the cause (after being ignored), objectified and unseen, only to give up the cause when it's time to save their own life. No judgement, life is hard and everyone has a limit.
The dedicated parent whose sole focus is their own child (or project). Sometimes the fight changes focus.
The calm guiding hand of the instructor that has seen a lot, and has long been preparing for the right moment to jump into action. And yeah, maybe they've had a few beers to help keep the edge off. No judgement, life is hard and everyone has a limit.
The cartoonish villain. Filled with rage because they have been humiliated, their authority being challenged. Toxic hate, they have to kill anything that reminds them of what they hide inside just so they can be accepted by a group. While that group acknolwedges the villain for the job they can fill, they hardly want to be seen in public together.
Finally, the child. The future thing that everyone is either fighting for or against.
Yeah, oversimplification. I'm sure my beloved sister has written something more in-depth. Not of the movie, but of the realities. In any case, I have both encountered and been each one of these at some point. No judgement, life is hard.
Resistance passed down through generations, ensuring the fight always continues in perpetuity. I felt a sense of heaviness at the end of the movie. We really do have a long way to go, and nothing will come easy, but fighting one battle after another causes us to lose hope for the end. Instead, we spend all day looking for the fight, on the defensive, and possibly missing opportunies to end it all.
I don't know what else to do but keep pushing becaues giving up is harder for me than trying.