Aman on the run in a society turned upside down: that is the image of the world projected in this year's Oscar nominees. Their heroes dodge injustice and prejudice, flights from danger and towards salvation that are frenzied and exhausting (even for audiences). At a time when some showbiz bigwigs fear offending the powerful, these films pack politics into rollercoaster stories.

在一个秩序颠倒的社会中亡命天涯：这便是今年奥斯卡提名影片所投射出的世界图景。 片中英雄们躲避不公与偏见，在逃亡与求生间奔突，节奏狂乱而令人疲惫（观众亦感如此）。 在部分娱乐界大亨唯恐触怒权贵之际，这些影片却将政治议题融入惊心动魄的故事之中。

During the Renaissance, some artists embraced a principle known as copia, or abundance. Depicting the wealth of creation, they thought, required richness, intricacy and variety. Today's top directors seem to agree. Many of the titles are whoppers. "Sinners" (pictured) earned an all-time record 16 nominations; "One Battle After Another" has 13; "Marty Supreme" has nine: all are well over two hours long. One response to cinema's box-office woes is evidently to offer more bangs for your buck.

文艺复兴时期，部分艺术家秉持“丰裕”（copia）原则， 认为展现造物之丰饶需以繁复、精妙与多样为要。 如今顶尖导演们似乎深以为然。 如今顶尖导演们似乎深以为然。 诸多提名影片体量惊人：《罪人》以16项提名创下历史纪录；《连番激战》获13项提名；《至尊马蒂》则有9项 ——且片长均超两小时。 面对影院票房困境，显然有影片试图以“超值体验”吸引观众。

Yet there are no longueurs here. "Sinners" is a fantasia about twin gangsters, both played by Michael B. Jordan, who open a juke joint in Mississippi in 1932; it is part musical and part horror flick, incorporating the Ku Klux Klan, shoot-outs, vampires and the blues. In "One Battle" Leonardo DiCaprio is chased relentlessly across cities, rooftops and deserts. "Marty Supreme" is a madcap caper about a table-tennis hustler (Timothee Chalamet) in the early 1950s, which features two competing love stories and a gunfight over a stolen dog.

然而，这些影片毫无冗长乏味之感。 《罪人》是一部关于双胞胎黑帮的狂想曲，由迈克尔·B·乔丹一人分饰两角， 讲述1932年两人在密西西比开设爵士乐酒吧的故事；影片融合音乐剧与恐怖片元素，三K党、枪战、 吸血鬼与蓝调音乐交织其中。 《连番激战》中，莱昂纳多·迪卡普里奥在城市、屋顶与沙漠间被无情追捕。 《至尊马蒂》则是一部荒诞喜剧，讲述20世纪50年代初一位乒乓球骗子（蒂莫西·柴勒梅德饰）的故事， 其中穿插两条爱情线与一场因偷狗引发的枪战。

These are overstuffed movies, careening through moods and genres—sports flick to bildungsroman, or thriller to Western. Together they convey a sense that, from today's perspective, life is too mercurial and overwhelming to fit into neat formats or plots. It is also unfair.

这些影片内容繁复，情绪与类型跳跃——从体育片到成长小说，或从惊悚片到西部片。 它们共同传递出一种认知：以当下视角观之，生活过于变幻莫测、纷繁复杂，难以被规整的叙事或情节所容纳。 生活亦充满不公。

"Wokeness" is said to be retreating nowadays; some media executives kowtow to the White House. By contrast these films are uncompromising, though they are also cunning, dressing argument in fantasy and period costume. "One Battle" is set in a parallel America where, as lawless militias hunt down immigrants, activists ponder how to resist. (Since the movie's release last year, the gap between its dystopia and reality has rapidly shrunk.) The new "Frankenstein"—which also has nine nominations—gives its mythic narrative a political edge, too. The scientist depends on an arms dealer for his funding and battlefields for his corpses.

如今，“觉醒文化”似有退潮之势，部分媒体高管向白宫谄媚。 相比之下，这些影片毫不妥协，且颇具巧思——以奇幻与历史外衣包裹论点。 《连番激战》设定于一个平行美国，无政府民兵追捕移民，活动家思索反抗之道 （自去年影片上映以来， 其描绘的反乌托邦与现实差距迅速缩小）。新版《科学怪人》（亦获9项提名）亦赋予神话叙事政治锋芒： 科学家依赖军火商资助，战场成为其尸体来源。

And though some politicians are trying to snuff it out, here America's discussion of race is vivid and irrepressible. Segregation and exploitation stalk "Sinners" along with its ghouls. In "One Battle" the ultimate villains are a white-supremacist cabal. The striving hero of "Marty Supreme" is Jewish, and the world is not his friend, peopled as it is with corrupt cops, vicious hoodlums and bullying tycoons.

尽管部分政客试图压制，但美国对种族问题的讨论在这些影片中依然鲜活而不可抑制。 《罪人》中，种族隔离与剥削与鬼怪如影随形； 《连番激战》的终极反派是白人至上主义阴谋集团； 《至尊马蒂》中，奋力拼搏的英雄是犹太人，而世界对他并不友好——腐败警察、 恶棍与霸道财阀充斥其间。

That film's interest in Jewishness and antisemitism is underlined in a standout sequence. In a brief but haunting flashback, a concentration-camp survivor recounts smothering his body in honey to feed to fellow prisoners. The whole hysterically ping-ponging saga of "Marty Supreme" unfolds in the shadow of the Holocaust, this interlude implies. "Sinners" has its own daringly symbolic moment, in which a blues song conjures up the spirits of black artists past and future, from West African musicians to hip-hop DJs. In "One Battle" a hallucinatory car chase along a dipping road hints that its struggle is unending.

影片对犹太身份与反犹主义的探讨在一场标志性戏份中达到高潮。 在一段短暂却令人难忘的闪回中，一位集中营幸存者讲述自己将身体涂满蜂蜜喂给狱友的故事。 整部《至尊马蒂》如癫狂的乒乓球赛般跌宕起伏，而这一插曲暗示：其叙事始终笼罩在大屠杀的阴影之下。 《罪人》亦有大胆象征时刻： 一首蓝调歌曲唤起从西非音乐家到嘻哈DJ的黑人艺术家之魂。 《连番激战》中，一场幻觉般的公路追逐暗示其斗争永无止境。

Crowd-pleasers that take artistic risks, such nominees deserve their success. They are also largely dominated by men, who do most of the frenetic running and fighting. (In "Frankenstein" a man even gives birth, kind of.) The old-fashioned template for screen heroism seems as unkillable as those vampires.

这些既讨喜又具艺术风险的影片，提名实至名归。 然而，它们仍以男性为主导，狂奔与打斗多由男性完成 （《科学怪人》中甚至有男性“分娩”情节）。传统银幕英雄模板，竟如吸血鬼般难以消灭。

An exception to all this is "Hamnet" (eight nominations). Bucking the old rule about not working with children and animals, this is the story of William Shakespeare's marriage, the birth of his offspring and the death of his son. The drama is staged in a narrow, muddy world of timbered houses, inglenook fireplaces, leather jerkins and rummaging livestock, with the odd boozy all-nighter and burst of iambic pentameter.

例外之作是《哈姆奈特》（获8项提名）。 它打破“不与孩童动物合作”的旧规，讲述威廉·莎士比亚的婚姻、 子女诞生与儿子之死。 戏剧在一个狭窄泥泞的世界中展开：木构房屋、壁炉、皮背心与翻找的牲畜， 间或穿插酩酊大醉的彻夜狂欢与抑扬格五音步的诗句。

"Hamnet" looks through the other end of history's telescope: its focus is not Shakespeare's seismic career but domestic joys and tragedy. The real protagonist is his wife, here called Agnes and played by Jessie Buckley (a hot favourite for Best Actress at the ceremony on March 15th). Her wails in childbirth and after her boy's demise are the film's most piercing sounds. The quietness, too, distinguishes "Hamnet" in a noisy, frantic field. At this year's Oscars, the rest is sirens.

《哈姆奈特》透过历史的另一端望远镜观察：其焦点非莎士比亚的辉煌事业，而是家庭悲喜。 真正的主角是其妻——此处名为阿格妮丝，由杰西·巴克利饰演（她是3月15日颁奖典礼上最佳女主角的热门人选）。 她分娩时的惨叫与丧子后的哀号，是影片最刺耳的声音。 在一片喧嚣狂乱中，《哈姆奈特》的静谧亦独树一帜。 今年的奥斯卡，其余皆是警报声。