A Schizophrenic Rant about Sinners

Bear with me

You know, they really didn’t have to do it. They could have gone 4 for 4 or 4 of 10 or of 13 or 4 of even 15. Nope. Instead, they went 4 for 16, which revealed the sham to be precisely what it is. And it wasn’t even a good sham. If I were ranking shams, I wouldn’t say it’s the greatest sham. I would never call it that. If there were an Oscar’s for shams, this sham wouldn’t even be nominated. That’s how bad it is. It’s not even good at being a sham.

When Sinners first came out, many people said it was good, but they weren’t quite sure what Oscars it would be nominated for. Or if it would even be nominated at all. Yeah, good movie, bit of a chaotic ending, but it happens. I hoped that the movie would get at least one nomination — maybe best original score?

Alas, the movie got 16 nominations. It became the most nominated movie in Oscars history and unscrewed everyone’s jaws. Yeah, I loved Micheal B Jordan shooting vampires, but is that really worth 16 Oscar nominations? Have you seen the movie? Do you think it’s worth 16 Oscar nominations?

This is compounded by the fact that everyone knows about the Academy’s long standing bias against horror movies. They really, really don’t like awarding horror movies. And yet, somehow, an horror movie that doubles as an action flick (which the Academy also doesn’t like) got 16 nominations? The most in history? Really?

Of course, I’m no professional movie watcher. You don’t have to listen to my opinion on movies. But seriously, dig deep into that heart of yours, and let me hear its song aloud; do you actually believe Sinners deserved 16 Oscars nominations?

If it does, then it’s difficult to imagine it not winning best picture or best director. If the director is the fellow responsible for organizing the film as a cohesive whole, and one such director created a movie that got sixteen notations — highest in history — then that director has to be the best in the business.

But what do we find on the night of the sham? Did Sinners win best picture? No. Best director? No. Instead, the movie won Best Actor (for Jordan being a worse Hardy in Legend) Best Original Screenplay (for an interesting rip off of Dusk to Dawn), Best Cinematography (I don’t know anything about that, so who knows how good it really was?) and Best Original Score (at least this does not look too out of place).

Even one Oscar is a good enough return for most movies, so it’s ridiculous to frame Sinners winning just 4 out of 16 as a failure. No, that’s not what I’m doing. I’m making an even worse claim; it’s a sham — even the ones it won. And the “proof” (if you need one) is in the missing Oscar for best Director.

Let’s look at what history tells us about the Best Director Oscar. The Academy has been giving out Oscars for nearly a century, and the pattern is not hard to see. Films that pile up nominations tend to carry their director along with them. Once a movie hits ten nominations, the thing is already in rare air. There have only been about a hundred films in the entire history of the awards that reached that mark. And nearly half of them — roughly forty-four percent — ended the night with their director holding the trophy. Think about that for a moment. In a category with five nominees, random chance would give you twenty percent odds. But if your film racks up ten nominations, history suddenly gives you something closer to a coin flip.

And the numbers get more absurd the higher you climb. Movies with eleven nominations win Best Director a little over half the time. Twelve nominations? Now you’re hovering near sixty percent. Once you get into the thirteen- and fourteen-nomination territory, the odds become downright predatory. The Academy is essentially telling you, in advance, that this film is one of the great organizing achievements of the year. Titanic had fourteen nominations and won. La La Land had fourteen nominations and won. Schindler’s List had twelve nominations and won. Oppenheimer had thirteen nominations and won.

So what does that make sixteen nominations? It is the Academy screaming from the rooftops that this movie is a historic achievement. It is the biggest endorsement they can mathematically give a director. After all, Sinners was nominated in every single category it was eligible for. And yet, when the envelopes were opened, the director of the most nominated film in Oscar history somehow wasn’t the best director of the year. That is the statistical miracle we are being asked to believe. A movie so good that it shattered the nomination record… but somehow not good enough for the award that usually follows from exactly that kind of dominance. And you believe it? Don’t be a mug.

What you’re saying, in essence, some fellow may reply, is that the Oscars elevated Sinners above its station with 16 nominations, but just couldn’t take the last step to crown their sham in glory? They just didn’t have the guts to go all the way? Is that what you’re trying to say?

And to this fellow, I say yes, yes, a thousand times yes. They orchestrated the greatest theft in Oscars history and didn’t have the guts to go all the way. Exactly. Now that you’re up to speed, let me chronicle the rest of this sham — this barbaric theft — for you to see.

Here’s the facts. We know (seriously, we have to know) that Sinners didn’t deserve 16 nominations. We also know that even the Academy doesn’t seriously think the movie deserves it, as evidenced by the movie not winning Best Director. And then we know that the academy really, really doesn’t like awarding horror movies, and yet made a huge exception (the biggest of them) for Sinners. Was it really that good?

No. I don’t think it was. And I know I might sound like some crazy guy for going down this path, and it’s really your fault for reading some crazy guy, but I think sinners was nominated so many times because people didn’t want to be called racist.

How can you say that, some fellow may cry. But it isn’t without basis. The #Oscarssowhite movement from 2015 led to a massive change in the demographics of the academy. From 2017-2019 over 800 new academy members were added from diverse backgrounds, with the Academy having an explicit goal of doubling its share of women and minority members. In other words, the Academy got a little gay. But that’s not bad, sometimes things may need a little queerifying, whatever, who cares.

But even after getting a little gay, lots of people still complained when Cynthia Erivo was the only person of color nominated in 2020. This led to the resurgence of the #Oscarssowhite movement (note that in that very same year Parasite, a Korean movie with English subtitles, won the Best Picture, the most prestigious award at the Oscars, so there’s a little bit of Hollywood irony for you) which led to new diversity rules. For example, movies have to satisfy certain DEI criteria before they can be eligible for Best Picture.

All of this goes to say the Academy isn’t immune to race based pressure from the outside. In fact, given the demographics of Hollywood and the political leanings of everyone who is anyone, it would be the most ordinary thing to state in the world. So no, I may sound like a crazy guy for going down this path, but I’m not. We are already on this path. Everyone is already crazy. Seriously.

So Sinners comes out, and it’s just about as close to the cinematic manifestation of “black Pipu good, Yt pipu bad” as you can get. But again, whatever. People put their sexual fetishes (hey Tarantino!) in movies all the time. Why not their political ones, eh?

Fortunately for Coogler, that particular strain of political fetish is all the rave in the west now, and Sinners took full advantage. Can we count how many think pieces there were on how the movie was ackshually really an allegory for, again, Yt people good, black pipu bad? The movie became a verifiable cultural moment. How do they say it? It became a part of the culture. Viva la culture!

Consider this passage from a leftist writer concerning the movie.

It shouldn’t be lost on any of us watching Sinners that this film was very intentional. This was more than a horror film — it was a message. Remmick (Jack O’Connell) is the white devil that literally falls into frame when he enters the scene with burning flesh since the sun is still out, and meets a white couple who are KKK members. The Devil makes a deal with the couple who invites them into their home (because as you know a vampire always has to ask to be invited to a person’s private property). Once the white devil attacks and forms his new legion of vamps they’re ready to prey on the only Black juke joint in town. The pale white demonic figures are ready to unleash their wrath on this town’s Black residents.— Black Girl Nerds

According to Notes From A Trap Feminist, the movie is really about “the constant siphoning of Black traditions by culture vultures (white people).” The Substack has almost 2k likes. You can say it’s a fairly common understanding of the movie.

Of course you would think this is a ridiculous stretch (hopefully), but you’re merely a sane person in an asylum. Surely Coogler wouldn’t want his work to be interpreted this way, right? Right? Thankfully, the good sense (and agents, and lawyers, and PR people, and studio executives and ironclad contracts and billions of dollars in studio bank accounts) of Mr Coogler has stopped him from explicitly endorsing any of these crazy people. We know he’s thinking it. He knows we know he’s thinking it. But no one can admit anything about it because, well, why would white people watch it then?

In any case, there is enough proof to show that this is a movie centered on racial animus and nominated by an Academy scared of racial purity testing. A match made in Hollywood. Like they say in Yoruba, 2 divided by 4.

Now, we could argue against human beings anti-racist human beings¹ till the sky turns red. But what can we do when even God is anti-racist?

Two weeks before the final voting window for the Oscars, Micheal B Jordan and Delroy Lindo, two nominees (Delroy was nominated for his 14 minutes on screen in Sinners) suffered the most unfortunate catastrophe of being called the n word by someone with Tourette’s. Thank God, the Tourette’s fellow excused himself before someone descended on him in and taught the silly boy how to talk to two black kings. It do be like that sometimes.

However, a clip of it got posted on the internet, and all hell broke lose. According to a puff piece and Jordan’s publicist, the incident was so bad that his parents cried and he lost sleep. What was so bad, you may ask. The racism of course.

The queer thing about the incident, really, is that the fellow with Tourette’s (who, honestly, should have known much better than to attend such a function without a useful duck tape to tape himself like the proper invalid he is) sat right in front of a mic. What a strange thing. Can you believe it. All those months of seat charts and planning all to place the dude with Tourette’s in front of a mic. It is like scoring an home goal but from, like, a goal kick.

And the BBC, that bastion of professionalism, left the sound in the broadcast. They edited every thing — and every other slur — out, but left that one in. What a random totally coincidental coincidence.

In any case, Jordan and Delroy received such an outpouring of love as a result of the unfortunate disaster they suffered at the mention of the word that many people suspected it would result in at least one Oscar. Of course, it would be stupid to say the n word incident tilted the scales in Jordan’s favor. We know human beings usually don’t act on petty sentiments such as that. Right?

God may be anti-racist, but he’s also just, so Jordan won best actor and Delroy, despite being the much bigger and darker you-know-what, got nothing. Spike Lee, not to be confused with the much dead and much loved Stan Lee, says his “one big disappointment” was his brother Delroy Lindo not winning an Oscar for best supporting actor. He then said he wanted a little more love for Sinners at the Oscars. They should have given Delroy the award. After robbing the event of four awards, Spike argues they should have gone for more.

In the end, better sense prevailed and Sinners didn’t take Best Picture, or Best Director. Odd that a movie that was nominated in every category it could be awarded in, wasn’t put together by the director of the year, nor was it the picture of the year. We probably have to thank the wisdom of the crowd in not granting Sinners the Crown Jewels of the night. 10,000 Academy members stared at the possibility of a black vampire flick being the Best Picture and they blinked. They stared at the thought of Coogler winning Best Director for doing that, and they blinked again. They just didn’t have the power of the dog in them.

The Academy took the film through the streets like a conquering king, hung medals on its chest, proclaimed it the king of hosts, led it to the throne, and then refused to crown it. Why, the movie asks. It’s a tough year, the Oscar’s reply. We all know why.

1. anti racism has a precise definition and doesn’t just mean to not be racist, in fact anti-racism is a term that exists entirely to describe a third state after racist and not racist. It is like the non-binary of critical race theory.