One of conservatism’s enduring insights is that aesthetics carry real stakes because culture shapes the affections long before reason weighs in. That’s why film is worth caring about. But caring about cinema isn’t the same thing as treating the multiplex as a ballot box. That’s what books and, God help me, our Twitter feeds are for. What matters is where a film turns our gaze. Does it begin from a posture of gratitude for what endures, or does it stir resentment toward our inherited traditions and institutions? The former is in conversation with the conservative imagination. The latter might be well made. I might even enjoy it. But it’s playing in a different key. Notice I haven’t said anything about a movie’s take on whatever issue is dominating the news cycle. That’s ephemera. Consider what stays with you when you leave the Vatican Museum. Is it where Raphael’s frescoes fell in the papal intrigues of Julius II, or the glimpse they offer of the eternal? One is trivia. The other speaks to the Permanent Things. With that in mind, here’s how conservatives might approach this year’s Best Picture nominees.
The Good
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