One Loss After Another

Los Angeles, CA (News4usonline) – Following the recently aired 83rd Annual Golden Globe Awards, the topics regarding representation and what is often deemed award worthy ignited conversation across the internet. 

Held on Jan. 11, 2026 and televised live on CBS, the star studded event was a night to behold. Many entries for the categories expected to be granted awards came close to unfortunately falling short of a possible win. 

Two films in particular that were released in 2025 would spearhead trending topics of which is afforded spotlight in its authenticity of storytelling and the integrity of Black actors, the spaces they occupy, and the narratives they seek to bring to the table. 

Sinners, which was directed by the Creed and Black Panther franchise visionary Ryan Coogler, and One Battle After Another, directed by the prominent Paul Thomas Anderson, both were faced with parallel levels of success in the aftermath of their releases. 

The cultural impact of Coogler’s Sinners was met with an overflow of praise geared towards his direction of merging vampire horror with southern Black folkloric culture and traditions. 

This heavily contrasted with the mixed reception Andersen faced on the behalf of his film, which showcased a digression in Black representation – and specifically – Black women representation that was layered in questionable stereotypes. 

The messages within Sinners were a celebratory homage to black resistance in the face of supernatural disruption. Mirroring real life ongoing issues such as the cultural appropriation of Black culture, the demonization of African spiritualities and practices, to even gentrification, persuaded a generation to engage with thought provoking discourse. 

This cultural phenomenon inspired by the film further highlights the making of Sinners as a much awaited emblem of faith for the future of Black stories in the media.

 During the award show, actress, singer, and dancer Teyanna Taylor was awarded Best Supporting Female Actor in a Motion Picture for her role in Andersen’s film as the fiery Perfidia Beverly Hills, member of the far left political group French 75. A known chameleon in the industry and a jack of all trades, Taylor’s win was also lauded. 

However, many people had vocalized their qualms pertaining to the politics surrounding the writing of her role. Taylor’s character Perfidia is an unapologetic, hypersexualized, and trigger happy revolutionary who only serves as a plot device for the early 20 minutes of the film, and that alone says enough. 

Once her character is finished serving her purpose as foil to her fellow comrades, betraying them after the birth of her daughter, and her inevitable arrest, Perfidia is completely stripped of her importance in the remaining duration of the story, which is loosely based on the 1990 novel Vineland, written by Thomas Pynchon.

Leonardo DiCaprio’s character, “Ghetto” Pat Calhoun (and eventually undergoing the alias of Bob Ferguson) is Perfidia’s partner, and the central character of Andersen’s film, in which his storyline follows his journey in fleeing from military forces who are hunting him and his daughter by Perfidia, down. 

The storyline of One Battle After Another was a convoluted tale without any core message. The manner in which it mishandled its Black women characters throughout the course of the film was heavily criticized and justifiably pushed back against amongst certain audiences.

 In the perception of the critics, Taylor’s character embodied the “strong Black woman” trope coupled with the badge of being a revolutionary that some could observe being reminiscent of the real life Black Panther member and fugitive Assata Shakur. 

Shakur’s actual legacy is not reflected in an honest light when it comes to the characterization of Perfidia, as Andersen fails to write her outside of his use of rigid caricatures detrimental to the women to look like her in the real world. 

It is safe to say that Perfidia’s character heavily contrasts to the character of Wunmi Mosaku’s Annie in Sinners. Being Smoke’s distant wife and a practitioner of the African spirituality, Hoodoo, Annie’s character is revered as the pinnacle of foundation Black women often naturally fulfill within the Black community. 

Coogler’s handling of his characters carries thought that cements the intention within the story he is seeking to tell. Andersen’s handling of his three main Black female characters is without a doubt stripped of their humanity, reducing them to temporary accessories of his main white male characters.

The optics behind the messages of One Battle After Another are hidden behind the veneer it was meticulously promoted to be. A story of revolutionaries on a quest to escape fatal ends but with very little attention centered on the alleged “revolution” itself. 

Andersen objectively misses his own mark, and this is evident in the reactions of how differently One Battle After Another was received. Sinners, though not without its own unique flaws, graces Blackness in a way that has never been demonstrated before with such intrinsic nuance.

 It is not just a visual journey of looming vampiric creatures lurking in the dark of the deep American south. It is a tale of history channeled through art and perseverance, all in which One Battle After Another measures short on its individual half. 

With Coogler’s film carrying a lasting legacy amongst younger generations of film lovers craving something fresh, it nonetheless came to no one’s surprise that the film was snubbed in a majority of the prominent categories it was nominated in, which notably included Best Director and Best Screenplay. 

Ironically, Andersen won the awards for these two major categories for his film One Battle After Another. Despite being nominated in seven categories in total, Sinners only took two wins; Best Original Score which was accepted by the film’s composer, Ludwig Goransson, and the Cinematic and Box Office Achievement award. 

Andersen’s film alone was nominated eight categories total, however, it earned four of those categories: Best Motion Picture Musical – Comedy, Best Supporting Female Actor in a Motion Picture (Teyanna Taylor), and lastly the aforementioned Best Director and Best Screenplay. 

What these two juxtaposing films reveal is how film holds not only the power to influence a generation of impressionable minds, but how messaging truly reaches the masses in a tangible way.

With the many wins Andersen’s One Battle After Another received in stark comparison, the question that remains is fairly simple. Will Hollywood continue to reward films that aim to push specific agendas masquerading as halfhearted triumph? Or does it really dare seek to propel art that does really have something important to say?  

Cover Art/Photo: Ludwig Göransson at the 83rd Annual Golden Globes held at The Beverly Hilton on January 11, 2026 in Beverly Hills, California.