Cannonball with Wesley Morris

Episode Summary: “What the Oscars Got Right”

Published: March 17, 2026
Host: Wesley Morris
Guest: Sasha Weiss, Culture Editor, New York Times Magazine

Episode Overview

In this post-Oscars breakdown, Wesley Morris and guest Sasha Weiss delve into the significance of this year’s Academy Awards: the wins, losses, controversies, and what they reveal about the current state of culture and cinema. Their conversation balances ambivalence over the ceremony’s politicking with real admiration for the art and cultural power of the Oscars. Through candid debate, analysis, and reflection, they examine headline moments, category controversies, memorable speeches, and the deeper meanings beneath the year’s biggest film honors.

Key Themes and Discussion Points

1. The “Ambivalence” of Oscars Watching

• Reluctance & Ritual: Both host and guest admit to habitual but hesitant Oscars watching, torn between cynicism toward the awards’ political nature and fascination with their impact (00:59-01:44).

• Wesley on the Oscars’ Importance:

  “I think that all the things you're talking about, the things that exasperate you are legitimate. … But I actually think, I mean, first of all, you know, as a canon making exercise, the Academy Awards have always been very important” (01:44-02:49).

• Oscars as a Cultural X-Ray:

  “…I feel like award shows are the single most important. I call it a crucible… really an X-ray of what the culture is at any given moment.” (02:51-03:21)

2. The Best Supporting Actress Controversy

• Category Tension:

  • Two acclaimed Black performances (Teyana Taylor in "One Battle After Another"; Wunmi Mosaku in "Sinners") were expected contenders (03:44-04:37).
  • Instead, Amy Madigan (a white veteran actress) wins for "Weapon" (04:37-05:31).

• Cultural Implications:

  • Sasha asks whether Madigan’s win sidestepped controversy, and Wesley suggests “we might have been spared something here,” as discourse shifts from a single performance to the wider issues of the contested films (05:34-06:11).
  • Wesley’s “shadow Oscars” pick would have gone to Taylor, quoting:

    “If I’m being honest, and my ballot was given to me the minute I left ‘One Battle After Another,’ I probably for sure would have checked Teyana Taylor’s name. … So I probably would have voted for Teyana Taylor if I didn’t have time to think about it. But then once my brain—” (06:23-06:55)

3. Introduction of the Casting Award

• Celebration & Innovation:

  • Both host and guest praise the category and the unique presentation, which featured one actor from each nominated film championing their casting director (07:11-08:29).

• Insight on Casting as “Soul Work”:

  • Wesley:

    “For the way I consider great casting, ‘Secret Agent’ and ‘One Battle After Another’ are your winners here. … you have this layer of people you have never seen before, people who aren’t professional actors, like the kids in the movie, the skate kids…all the military guys…that have to be correspondent to each other as well as to the other constituent parts of the movie.” (08:42-09:58)

  • Sasha summarizes:

    “So this, like, delicate network of interrelation that you’re having to kind of map as a casting director—it’s not only the person for the part, it’s the person in relation to all of the other people.” (09:58-10:09)

4. Major Snubs and Surprise Losses

“Secret Agent”:

• Despite being a personal favorite and earning many nominations, it walked away with nothing (10:54).
• Wesley expresses satisfaction it was even recognized—“should it have won international feature? It lost to ‘Sentimental Value’...It should have, yes.” (10:54-11:45)

“K Pop Demon Hunters”:

• Wins Animated Feature and Original Song but snubbed in major categories like Screenplay and Picture.
• Wesley draws a comparison to “Sinners,” both being about “two existences”—the undead and those who hunt them, and roots in African American and K-pop mythology (12:24-14:10).
• Quotes:

  “If I didn’t tell you that I was talking about K Pop Demon Hunters, I could have been talking about Sinners, right?” (12:24-12:48)
  “…Y’all could have thrown this a best original screenplay. Something. Like, I mean, it’s more original than like at least two of the other nominees.” (14:12-14:38)

“Marty Supreme” and Timothée Chalamet:

• Another snub—speculation arises around Chalamet’s out-of-pocket comments and perpetual presence in the press cycle, both a blessing and curse (17:12-21:12).

  “He’s so good at [promotion] that it kind of cursed the art.” (21:09)

5. Michael B. Jordan’s Best Actor Win

• Wesley’s emotional reaction:

  “Oh my God, I’m gonna cry right now of just happiness because … Michael B. Jordan is the kind of movie star that it’s just so easy to overlook what they’re doing as an actor because the movie star dimension of them is so strong.” (21:45-22:03)

• On Jordan’s journey:

  • Early roles (as Wallace on The Wire)
  • Recognizing the soul of his work in “Sinners”
  • The performance was “about the soul, right? This is a soul performance. But this is also a movie about souls, right?” (25:48-27:14)

• On his late appreciation for Jordan:

  “…you can see, like, four different emotions settling on his face. And he says, like, with a delivery that I have never heard from him before, just like, ‘Well, why those roots ain't save our baby.’ And it is just, woo, woo. But I missed it the first three times.” (28:29-28:59)

• Why his win resonated:

  “He’s got the thing that you want from a movie star … you’re just rooting for this man. … He was just like, I thank y’all for believing in me. He wasn’t talking about the Academy. He was talking about everybody else. … Everybody believes in him. … It just feels good.” (29:07-30:13)

6. The Best Picture Debate: “One Battle After Another” vs. “Sinners”

• Cultural Complication:

  • Both films are in conversation, reflecting different eras and approaches—Anderson’s being more provocatively racial and political, Sinners being “soul work” (30:18–36:17).

• Impact and Backlash:

  • “One Battle After Another” is divisive: lauded for filmmaking but criticized for its depiction of Black people, politics, and sexuality.
  • Comparison to historical Best Picture nominees (“Mississippi Burning”) that center white savior narratives and sideline Black voices (34:20–35:50).

• Ambiguity as Art and Flaw:

  • The strangeness of “One Battle…” is both a virtue and a failing:

    “I think it’s both a virtue and a failing. And I will say that, like, in the world of the Academy, what does it mean that that’s the movie that won instead of the movie that is doing soul work in a very straightforward way or in a very deep way?” (36:32-36:45)

• Oscars as a Site for Reflection:

  “One of the things that I love about the Academy Awards is that it forces a lot of us to have these conversations about what it means for these movies to not only be celebrated … What is making me uncomfortable about this celebration of this movie in this way?... what is this body trying to tell me about the people who make my movies?” (37:09–38:04)

Memorable Quotes & Moments

• On why the Oscars matter (Wesley, 02:51):
  “Award shows are the single most important…X-ray of what the culture is at any given moment.”
• On voting with your gut (Wesley, 06:23):
  “If I’m being honest … I probably for sure would have checked Teyana Taylor’s name.”
• On the complexities of casting (Sasha, 09:58):
  “…it’s not only the person for the part, it’s the person in relation to all of the other people.”
• On Michael B. Jordan’s resonance (Wesley, 29:07-30:13):
  “He’s got the thing that you want from a movie star…you’re just rooting for this man…everybody believes in him.”
• On the Oscars’ cultural lessons (Wesley, 37:09):
  “…it forces a lot of us to have these conversations about what it means for these movies to not only be celebrated. But what do they mean as works of art?”

Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Segment Topic | |------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 00:31–03:21| Oscars' importance and cultural ambivalence | | 03:21–06:55| Supporting Actress: controversies and “who deserved it?” | | 07:11–10:29| The new Casting award: why it matters and who got snubbed | | 10:50–14:49| Deep dive: “Secret Agent” and “K Pop Demon Hunters” | | 17:12–21:12| “Marty Supreme”, Timothée Chalamet, and the perils of self-promotion | | 21:22–30:13| Michael B. Jordan’s Best Actor win and the nuances of his performance | | 30:18–38:04| Best Picture debate: “One Battle After Another” vs. “Sinners” | | 38:04–38:17| Closing thoughts: Oscars’ value as cultural reflection |

Tone and Style

Wesley and Sasha’s conversation is lively, candid, self-reflective, and distinctly critical yet celebratory. They grapple with the political, racial, and artistic dynamics of contemporary film culture, retaining a conversational warmth and the incisive, personal engagement that characterizes “Cannonball.”

Summary prepared for listeners who want depth on “What the Oscars Got Right”: this episode brings the drama, insight, and critique that shape both our awards and our culture.