One Battle After Another (2025)

At the start of One Battle After Another, the main character, Pat (played by Leonardo DiCaprio), is shown helping to free immigrants from a detention centre. He is part of a revolutionary group, The French 75, but it's soon revealed that he became part of the cause because of his love for Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor). The group make a powerful enemy in Col. Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn), but the Colonel also becomes immediately infatuated with Perfidia. Things go wrong, years pass by, and Pat is now going by the name of Bob, and is now raising his daughter, Willa (Chase Infiniti) as a single father. He's often busy drinking or smoking weed, and he's paranoid about the past catching up with him. Being paranoid doesn't mean he's wrong though. The past soon starts catching up with him, and Lockjaw uses all of the military resources at his disposal to target Willa.

Before I get into some of the substance of the film, I'll mention all of the main cast members. DiCaprio gives another performance that taps into his talent for comedy, although it's different from the comedy he's done in other movies from the past decade. He's a burnt-out loser, but he at least had one or two shining moments in his past. Infiniti is so great in her first film role that I wouldn't hesitate to call this a star-making turn. And as for Penn, he gives what could well be his best turn in a very long time, somehow making his character buffoon-ish, but also constantly dangerous and threatening. Taylor makes a hell of an impression in her role, as powerful and majestic as she needs to be, and there's also time for brilliant work from Regina Hall and Benicio del Toro, the latter a calm and smart operator nicely juxtaposed alongside the frantic shambling of DiCaprio.

The tenth narrative feature film from writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson, and his second developed (loosely?) from source material written by Thomas Pynchon, One Battle After Another shows a film-maker absolutely confident in his abilities to juggle tone, explore some interesting themes in complex ways, and deliver moments of cinematic joy. This is a long film, the runtime is 161 minutes, but anyone who finds it pressing the right buttons for them won't be bothered. In fact, I was happy to spend as much time as possible revelling in this mix of madness and mayhem.

Despite taking a hell of a long time to finally get to the screen, Anderson had wanted to make this for years, this is a film that feels very much of the here and now. It shows the huge divide between the strong and the vulnerable, shows the ripple effect emanating out from acts of political violence, and also takes time to show that those with the real power and money will ultimately do their utmost to seek ideals of racial purity that would be laughable if it wasn't so deadly. While Anderson appears to plant his own flag very much in territory that would try to fend off the likes of Lockjaw and co., he has both a protagonist and an antagonist who end up as extremists due to dishonest motivations. But whatever the reasons, when you make major decisions based on either love or hate then you have to deal with the repercussions of those decisions for the rest of your life. It's not enough to be an occasional tourist in the kind of lives that we're shown. Commitment is necessary, for better or worse.

Taking time to let us know all of the main players, and the stakes, Anderson then has fun with a premise that keeps the characters constantly on the move. Accompanied by another great Johnny Greenwood score, there's an ongoing pursuit of our addled hero, gorgeous Michael Bauman cinematography and camera moves that you'd expect (although it never feels as if it is calling attention to itself), and at least one cracking car chase sequence in the third act. I've seen many rush to praise Anderson for his ability to handle action though, and I would warn potential viewers not to expect too much. But when you do get some unadulterated adrenalin-pumping moments then, oh boy, it IS good stuff indeed.

The more I think about One Battle After Another, the more I am impressed that the end result feels so completely satisfying. This is a film that features both pratfalls and a sequence showing Americans being executed by military personnel, it has horrible racists shown to be as absurd as they are deadly, and it paints a bleak picture of modern American scenarios we can see unfolding on the news daily while somehow also pointing out the characters and tactics that should give us some optimism. 

I came away from this first viewing thinking that I really REALLY liked it, but didn't think it was quite the masterpiece some were already calling it. I'm already not so sure about that, and I can see myself considering this another slice of cinematic perfection from PTA whenever I get around to a rewatch, which I could happily indulge in right now. 

9/10

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Prime Time: State Of Grace (1990)

Sean Penn, Gary Oldman, Ed Harris, Robin Wright, John C. Reilly, and John Turturro have a lot of film experience. In fact, I don't think I could do the maths to tally up their cumulative total amount of screentime. Having them all working together in State Of Grace should be a good thing, but you have to then consider that director Phil Joanou didn't have much experience. And writer Dennis McIntyre made his feature debut here, although his early death from stomach cancer removed any chance of seeing what other movies he may have written. The inexperience behind the camera ends up negating the vast experience in front of the camera, sadly, and then there's the presence of Sean Penn, an actor who . . . well, he's just sometimes not as good as he thinks he is. Let's all just try to agree on that for now.

Penn plays Terry, a man who reunites with an old best friend, Jackie (Oldman), after a number of years apart. Jackie is a violent criminal, working for a mob ruled over by his brother, Frankie (Harris). Loyalties are tested, people end up dying, and things get a hell of a lot worse when it becomes clear that someone isn't who they claim to be. There's a rat, someone working for the police, and betrayal will inevitably lead to much more bloodshed.

Despite the selection of music videos that he's shot, Joanou doesn't show any real eye for style or captivating imagery here. State Of Grace is a drab and ugly film, and I don't mean that in a way that allows the aesthetic to match the content (because the cast make the most of the few moments that allow them to set off some fireworks, metaphorically speaking). Perhaps hampered by McIntyre's script, which proves incredibly disappointing in how slavishly it follows a template we have already seen so many times before this, or maybe even overawed by, or too reliant on, his leads, Joanou does nothing to make this stand out from a crowded field.

Let's take a closer look at that cast now. Oldman at least has some energy in his performance, even if it's not always the right energy, and he's as captivating as ever. Harris is similarly capable of holding your attention when he's front and centre, and he gets to play his part with an ongoing attempt to stay calm and controlled, even as he feels himself being caught between a rock and a hard place. Wright tries her best in a role that gives her too little to work with, but both Reilly and Turturro are able to do just enough to make their mark, with the former particularly enjoyable in a role that feels a step removed from many of his other performances. Then you have Penn, who simply fails to convince throughout. He's play-acting in a way that would be excusable if you were watching a young child, but is embarrassing when watching a grown man. I do like Penn in some of the roles that have helped him to earn his reputation over the years, but there are times when he just isn't the right man for the job. This is one of those times.

I wish I could praise anything else, even the score from Ennio Morricone feels a bit lacklustre, but there aren't many positives to grasp on to. There are a couple of decent songs tucked away on the soundtrack, and you also get supporting turns from Joe Viterelli and Burgess Meredith. That's it. This just isn't a good film, despite the presence of some very good people doing occasionally good work. I would advise most people to avoid it completely.

3/10

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Prime Time: Gangster Squad (2013)

When one or two good cops are fed up of gangster Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) basically turning Los Angeles into his own personal playground it soon becomes clear that the best way to beat him is to act outside the law. And the Gangster Squad is created, a group of tough cops who operate without a badge while setting about systematically destroying the operations that keep Cohen in wealth and power.

Based on a non-fiction book by Paul Lieberman (which isn’t to say this is an accurate retelling of anything that comes close to the truth), Gangster Squad is very much style over substance, with the script from Will Beall happy to fit in as many tropes and recycled classic noir movie moments as possible. That doesn’t mean it’s unenjoyable. It’s just an inferior copy of numerous outright classics (including one or two modern classics, with The Untouchables casting as big a shadow over this as the classic WB gangster movies of the ‘30s and ‘40s. 

Director Ruben Fleischer can do fun films. I like one of his films more than the rest of his filmography (the one that involves zombies and a man on the hunt for Twinkies), but I have enjoyed most of his directorial efforts so far, to varying degrees. Even the mis-cast Uncharted. I didn’t enjoy this film though, and it feels as if Fleischer couldn’t get a handle on the material, but was hoping a few cool moments stitched together would help distract people from it being such a messy dollop of weak sauce. He has done well with casting, and managed to do equally well with the team of people working behind the camera to bring the Los Angeles of this time period to life, but there’s no feeling of a steady hand at the wheel.

Josh Brolin ends up as the head of the titular squad, and he gives another strong and gruff performance that matches a lot of his other work. If you need someone in authority to roll up their sleeves and do some dirty work then Brolin is your man, and he also looks damn sharp in the 1940s style. Alongside him are characters played by Anthony Mackie, Robert Patrick, Michael Peña, Giovanni Ribisi, and Ryan Gosling. All of them do pretty decent work, with the exception of Gosling, who has decided to give his character a slightly higher-pitched way of speaking that doesn’t work. I can guess why he decided to give it a try, but someone should have stopped him. Emma Stone is dazzling as a woman caught up in Cohen’s world, Nick Nolte has a couple of great scenes as he assembles, and checks in on, the squad (off the record), and Penn gets to play his bad guy like he’s just walked off the pages of a Dick Tracy comic strip. Holt McCallany adds another henchman role to his long list of henchman roles, something he excels at, and the rest of the cast is stacked with familiar faces you will recognise, although may not be able to name.

If Fleischer wanted to make something violent and gripping then he failed. If he wanted to make something that felt like an important portrayal of a true story then he failed there too (none of this rings true, sadly, even if it is based on some real events). There are times when it almost gets the right balance, an attempted jailbreak being a highlight until the lights go out, but it’s mostly some pretty, but unengaging, visuals accompanied by a very nice score from Steve Jablonksy. There’s just about enough here to keep me moderately happy for the runtime, but I am VERY easily pleased.

4/10

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Netflix And Chill: The Pledge (2001)

There's an interesting history for the source material of The Pledge, written by Friedrich Dürrenmatt, and I would very much like to check out It Happened In Broad Daylight, a previous film working with Dürrenmatt's story, but I am not here to present an overview of that journey. I'm just going to review the film I saw, but I wanted to make people aware of other ways to discover this story.

Jack Nicholson plays Jerry Black, a police detective due to retire. Plans for a happy send-off are disrupted by the discovery of a child's corpse in the local area, and Jerry becomes determined to end his career by solving this case. Someone must be brought to justice. An evil individual must be stopped. Perhaps that can happen when Toby Jay Wadenah (Benicio del Toro) is brought in for questioning, or perhaps this case will haunt Jerry for a long time, warping his mind as he obsesses over every detail and remains determined to find a killer he believes is still at large.

The third feature film directed by the po-faced agitator known as Sean Penn (a man who probably smiled when that bloody U2 album was automatically downloaded to his iTunes account, and still listens to it weekly), The Pledge is a superb film for a number of reasons, including Penn's confident direction throughout. The writing gives you everything you need without feeling patronising, but also allows for a lot of quieter moments without testing your patience. The screenplay was co-written by Jerzy Kromolowski and Mary Olson-Kromolowski (a husband and wife writing duo), and they do a great job at making the most of the source material.

Another big plus, arguably the biggest, is the performance from Jack Nicholson. Nicholson is a much-celebrated actor, and has delivered a number of truly iconic performances, but it's hard to argue against the fact that his roles throughout the past few decades most often felt like he was playing some version of himself. Like a number of other actors I could mention, Nicholson became all too easy to view as a parody at times, but he does work here that reminds you of just how great he can be with material that doesn't ask him to rely on his usual tricks and manic twinkle in the eyes. He's surrounded by an excellent selection of people supporting him, no matter the size of their roles, including the aforementioned Del Toro. Others stepping up to the mark include Aaron Eckhart, Robin Wright, Helen Mirren, and Tom Noonan. 

Full of dread and despair throughout, this certainly isn't a film to watch when you're not prepared for something that will put you through the emotional wringer. There is a middle section that provides just enough temporary respite, but that only makes it slightly easier to battle all the way through to an ending that may or may not provide some kind of resolution for the central characters. Or, in other words, be prepared to walk under dark grey clouds, even if you get some time when you're not being rained on.

You may not want to revisit this, I myself have only just given it a second viewing for this review, but you'll be glad that you watched it. And that's my pledge to you.*

*not legally binding.

9/10

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Licorice Pizza (2021)

I am usually an easy mark for Paul Thomas Anderson movies. He makes amazing movies that I tend to love, thanks to his technique often being accompanied by great performances from the people he casts in main roles. Licorice Pizza still has his technique on display, but the strangely unsatisfying script isn’t helped by young leads who aren’t up to the usual high standard of acting seen in other Anderson works. Also, to be flippant, this feels like a Richard Linklater film directed by a stand-in.

Cooper Hoffman plays Gary, a child actor who is struggling to find the right roles now he is an older teen. He can no longer get away with the cheeky antics he used to, he can no longer get by on cute and adorable, but he cannot just go back to a normal life. So he spends his time being an entrepreneurial businessman, looking to profit from whatever the latest fad might be, from water beds to videogames and pinball. Gary also, from the very start of the film, falls for the older Alana (played by Alana Haim). In her mid-20s, Alana scoffs at the idea of a relationship with Gary, but he’s certainly interesting and charismatic enough to make her interested in his life. And so begins a friendship that may or may not develop into something more.

Part period piece, part ode to the bittersweet intensity of that first BIG crush, Licorice Pizza isn’t a film to dismiss. I don’t think I would ever say that about any film from Anderson. It is, however, his least interesting and least successful work to date (in terms of translating ideas from script to screen). 

Taking on his usual writer-director role, Anderson can at least be thankful for the talented people he works with. The production design here is wonderful, as expected. The wardrobe and make up departments do equally good work. The biggest problems here stem from the script and the casting.

Hoffman is great in his role, giving a performance that shows him as an actor who could easily follow in the daunting footsteps of his late father. Haim isn’t so good. I am not sure how much of that is down to her and how much of that is down to the script, with that age gap making things inherently a bit odd and icky, so I won’t spend too much time complaining about her. Bradley Cooper and Sean Penn, on the other hand, can both take some extra criticism. They clearly saw that they could have some fun with their roles, but both of them quickly teeter too far over into performances that are too silly. This may have been in service to the material, but neither of their performances fit well in a movie that otherwise wrings humour from a nice selection of references, time stamps, and winks to viewers, although let’s just not mention the scenes featuring John Michael Higgins. Mainly because I cannot decide on whether they are awful or amazing. The other person worth mentioning is Mary Elizabeth Ellis, very good in her small amount of screentime as the mother of Gary.

I have seen a lot of love for this, and some fans of Anderson rank it just as highly as some of his other works (and, in my view, he has delivered more than one cinematic masterpiece already, with a number of other movies from him coming very close to that status). It just didn’t work for me.  Many of the performances worked against the better elements, and the better elements felt like moments I could find in other, more enjoyable, movies. This isn’t one I think I will ever want to revisit, which is the first time I have said that about any Paul Thomas Anderson movie.

5/10

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Noir-vember: U Turn (1997)

Sean Penn stars here as Bobby Cooper, a drifter who ends up with car problems that leave him stranded in a desert town miles from normality. Bobby soon gets in between two people who seem to be in a relationship (played by Jennifer Lopez and Nick Nolte), but both actually want the other one dead. He may be able to turn his misfortune into a major payday, which would help with his plan to either pay a big debt he owes or run towards a new life. If he somehow has any money left after paying off the ever-growing list of charges that the local mechanic (Billy Bob Thornton) keeps adding to his bill.

Adapting his own novel into screenplay form, writer John Ridley delivers a tale of unpleasantness, madness, and oppressive heat. Whether you like the film or not, director Oliver Stone takes the material and seems to relish the opportunity to spend a couple of hours trapping viewers with characters that we would otherwise be looking to get away from as quickly as possible.

I am not always a big fan of Penn onscreen, but he’s good here, playing someone so irredeemably bad that he doesn’t realise how much he belongs alongside the other characters who are also irredeemably bad. Lopez is a great femme fatale, and I hope she tries this kind of role at least one more time, and Nolte has a lot of fun in his sleazy role. Jon Voight has a small role that has him quite unrecognisable, Powers Boothe is a local Sheriff who may complicate things further, and there’s even one scene that makes good use of the wonderful Laurie Metcalf. There’s also a fun, though relatively inconsequential, plot strand that benefits from enjoyable turns from Claire Danes and Joaquin Phoenix.

You get the usual overdose of flourishes, editing tricks, and visceral nastiness that so often appears in an Oliver Stone movie, but the score from Ennio Morricone does a good job of helping to offset the unrelenting visual assault. The soundtrack, unfortunately, just feels pilfered from other, better, movies. There are definitely moments when this feels like Stone trying to emulate a film-maker he may view as having moved into his realm and stolen his crown (that cocky overthrower being Mr. Tarantino). 

There are a lot of fun moments here, especially anything involving Thornton, but there are times when it is a bit of a slog. It is a gallery of the grotesque, a carnival freakshow. That is fun when you first wander in and enjoy the novelty. It becomes tiresome when you realise you paid your money and are now stuck inside for an overlong presentation of hucksterism and nastiness.

6/10

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Noir November: The Game (1997)

It may cause some heated debate among fans of the franchise, but people remember that David Fincher directed the much-maligned Alien³. They also tend to remember the enjoyable camerawork that was used to set up the layout of the main building in Panic Room. The rest all have their loyal fans and are unlikely to be forgotten any time soon. But The Game, this is the one that people always seem to forget about. Which is a great shame, because it's a damn fine thriller with a strong strand of pitch-black humour running through the whole thing.

Michael Douglas is Nicholas Van Orton, a wealthy businessman who doesn't seem to have any fun in life any more. It's his birthday, not that he's going to celebrate it in any big way, so he ends up at lunch with his brother (Conrad, played by Sean Penn). His brother has managed to get him a gift for the man who has everything. He has booked Nicholas a game with a company called CRS. What is the game? Well, it's different for each person. A live scenario is played out, and finding out the object of the game is often the object of the game. What starts out as fun and/or mildly irritating soon turns into something darker and much more dangerous, and Nicholas is soon convinced that he's caught up in the middle of something that's no longer just a game.

Put together with typical attention to detail by Fincher, The Game is based on a script by John D. Brancato and Michael Ferris. Although the tone of the whole thing is quite dark, the emphasis is very much on a sense of fun. The whole film is as much a game for viewers as the central premise is for the main character. Figuring out just who is in on the plot, and who isn't, is part of the fun. Another part of the fun is seeing such a composed, slightly arrogant, character being brought low by a series of unfortunate events. Okay, it's maybe not the nicest thing in the world to laugh at someone having such a bad time of things, but it's hard not to enjoy it ever so slightly. So enjoy it. Think of it as the darker, twisted sibling of After Hours (and THERE'S a great double-bill to line up some time).

Douglas is fantastic as Van Orton, a man who slowly starts to unravel as things around him move from the ridiculous to potentially lethal. He's done this kind of role before, of course, but this really plays to his strengths. Penn has a lot of fun with his small, supporting turn. The other main character who comes to the fore is a waitress played by Deborah Kara Unger. I became a big fan of Unger when she starred in both Crash and this movie in the space of a year or two, and she comes into this film at just the right time, lifting things up another notch as the second act starts to show how expansive the game is.

There ARE problems. Anyone looking for logic and believability should look elsewhere, and the long runtime starts to take a toll as the third act starts to outstay its welcome. For the most part, however, this is a great example of a director having a lot of fun with his audience. Nothing is done in a way that seems too cheeky or arrogant. It's just light fare covered in dark wrapping.

I doubt that this will be the number one choice when you ask people "what's your favourite Fincher movie?" and that's fair enough. But I'd love to think that it's not going to be consistently forgotten every time someone discusses highlights from his filmography. Because, as far as I'm concerned, this is definitely one of them.

8/10

http://www.amazon.com/Game-Michael-Douglas/dp/B000069HZP/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1415889512&sr=1-2&keywords=the+game