I used to love the Oscars. The Oscars and election night were my “Super Bowls” growing up. I would print out the list of nominations, see all the movies with my cousin, and then vote for my favorites and which movies I thought would win. In sixth grade, I wrote that I wanted to be an executive producer — that’s how much I adored movies. I saw the medium of film not just as an end to be loved for its own sake but also as a means to change culture and direct people’s attention to the true, the good, and the beautiful. They say politics is downstream from culture. What moves culture better than movies?

And if Joker is this year’s most Oscar-nominated film, what does that then say about our culture?