It’s hardly going out on a limb to predict that Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” and Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners,” the two most passionately acclaimed and culturally significant American movies of 2025, will divide most of the spoils when the ninety-eighth Academy Awards are handed out, on March 15th. Nor would it be especially bold, at this point in the game, to predict a Best Picture win for either film. On paper, “One Battle After Another” looks nearly unstoppable; the sheer number of best-film prizes that it’s scooped up in recent months, from organizations including the Critics’ Choice Association,...