Cannonball with Wesley Morris The Complicated Oscars Night Feelings Over ‘One Battle After Another’
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Mar 12, 2026 Daphne A. Brooks, Yale scholar of African American studies and critic of Black music and culture. She calls Paul Thomas Anderson’s film a “Black feminist 911” and unpacks its charged racial and sexual framing. Short takes explore missing interiority, generational divides in reaction, and the stakes of representation at awards time.
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Oscars Framed As A Black Film Showdown
- Wesley Morris frames the Oscars race as dominated by two Black-centered films: Ryan Coogler's Sinners (16 noms) and Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another (13 noms).
- He emphasizes the cultural stakes for Black audiences and the recurring complexity of race at the Academy Awards.
Black Feminist 911 Emergency Text
- Daphne A. Brooks texted Wesley calling the film a “black feminist 911 emergency” after opening-night viewing.
- She said she almost walked out and described the movie as about white male weakness at the expense of women reduced to caricatures.
Opening Encounter Evokes Historical Archetypes
- Daphne situates the film's early encounter between Teyana Taylor's Perfidia and Sean Penn's Lockjaw in a long history of racialized, sexualized violence against Black women.
- She connects the scene to archetypes Nina Simone catalogued in her song For Women.
