CODA winning Best Picture would feel like a victory for a certain kind of cultural movement.

It’s a symbol of the embrace of “comfort food” art, an extension of that which praises Ted Lasso or Paddington 2. It’s endorsed by the kinds of people who say that, in such dark and difficult times, the last thing we want is movies about darkness and difficult things that make you feel bad. What we all (and it’s always presumed everyone is onboard)…

Do you when The Avengers came out in 2012, now a full decade ago?

The narrative going into that summer was that The Dark Knight Rises was the blockbuster to beat. Four years earlier, Christopher Nolan wowed audiences with The Dark Knight and the smart money was on him doing it again. Rises didn’t do as well as The Dark Knight (though it didn’t exactly bomb) first and foremost because it was a worse film. But beyond this, it…