One Battle After Another (2025) Warner Bros. 📢 Director: Paul Thomas Anderson. 💰 Producers: Paul Thomas Anderson, Sara Murphy, Adam Somner. 👫 Cast: Leonardo Di Caprio, Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, Chase Infiniti. 🏆 Awards ceremony: -98th Academy Awards: March 15, 2026. Dolby Theatre, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. 🎭 Other films nominated for Best Picture this year: -Bugonia. -F1. -Frankenstein. -Hamnet. -Marty Supreme. -The Secret Agent. -Sentimental Value. -Sinners. -Train Dreams. 📕 Plot summary: Pat Calhoun (LEONARDO DiCAPRIO) and his foul-mouthed black girlfriend Perfidia (TEYANA TAYLOR) help to break out a group of immigrants near the Mexican border. The commanding officer Lockjaw (SEAN PENN) goes looking for them, finds Perfidia and ultimately impregnates her. Sixteen years later after Perfidia has abandoned her baby and entered the witness protection program after ratting out her accomplices, Lockjaw is assigned to find and kill the now-teenage girl. 💥 Standout scene(s): -It's got to be the phone conversation when Di Caprio is having major rage with the guy on the other end who is proving to be difficult by not revealing the rendezvous co-ordinates of his missing daughter. He gets completely out of his pram and ends up going berzerk! -The scene where the store employee tries to sneak out of the back door to avoid being captured, only to find Colonel Lockjaw waiting for her. -The low angled shots from the front of the cars during the chase scene where the road resembles a rollercoaster were extremely well shot. -Best line: "Freedom's a funny thing, isn't it? When you have it you don't appreciate it, and when you miss it, it's gone." 🔑 Facts: -The 98th Academy Awards. -Nominated for 12 Academy Awards, it won 6: Best Picture, Director, Supporting Actor (Sean Penn), Adapted Screenplay, Editing, Casting. -This was the third Best Picture starring role for Leonardo Di Caprio (TITANIC, THE DEPARTED). 🙂 Personal opinion: The movie has a good visual about it. The opening shots (the 13 minutes in the pre-title sequence) do enough to hook the viewer in and keep their attention. However, I was getting increasingly pissed off with the attitude of Perfidia's character and her profanity in every other sentence. Her fucking mouth was really grating my cheese. Sean Penn steals the film with a really strong performance, which deservedly won him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, although I couldn't help thinking how much he reminded me of General Patton?! It took me 21 minutes before I even realised it was him! The music was distracting because it was constant and so unnecessary. The pacing was good and well edited (this won the Oscar). I really enjoyed seeing Tony Goldwyn in a minor role (I always remember him from GHOST). There were a couple of scenes that made me laugh: when the black girl storms into the bank with a gun and announces herself as 'Jungle Pussy'; the grilling Di Caprio gives the kid who knocks too loudly on his front door. And I shouldn't laugh but that whole 'I was raped in reverse' speech from Sean Penn's character was just baffling! Decent. Did it deserve the Oscar? ✅YES. ⭐️6.5/10

Review date: 16 March 2026