Category Archives: Tony Goldwyn

2025 Films, Action, Alana Haim, Benicio del Toro, Chase Infiniti, Crime Thriller, Leonardo DiCaprio, Paul Thomas Anderson, Regina Hall, Sean Penn, Teyana Taylor, Thriller, Tony Goldwyn

One Battle After Another-2025

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One Battle After Another-2025

Director Paul Thomas Anderson

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Chase Infiniti

Scott’s Review #1,497

Reviewed October 20, 2025

Grade: A

In my opinion, one of the modern great directors, Paul Thomas Anderson has released One Battle After Another (2025), a film rich with thrills and relevance. Sought to be made for years, the film is inspired by the 1990 novel Vineland by Thomas Pynchon with some narratives by Anderson peppered in.

Undoubtedly, Anderson was influenced by the current state of the United States in terms of immigration issues and tyrancy in the ICE (United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement) organization.

While immigration is not a new hot button issue, the inhumanity heaved onto ‘illegal immigrants’ and some US citizens is current as well as powerful.

Additionally, a frightening tone of racism and ‘white power’ is an underlying theme of the film contrasting covert hatred by a group of white supremisists with the humanity of revolutionaries who attack the political system.

Therefore, the film has an overwhelming modern feel.

Otherwise, the breakneck twists and turns and action make One Battle After Another the crown jewel in storytelling fun and an Anderson offering that could easily be added to his top 5 of all time.

Events follow an ex-revolutionary explosive device expert, “Ghetto” Pat Calhoun / “Rocketman” / Bob Ferguson (Leonardo DiCaprio) who is forced back into his former combative lifestyle when a corrupt military officer pursues him and his daughter.

With new identies, they had assumed they could live a peaceful life of tranquility but they were in for a rude awakening.

Set in present times, the film begins fifteen years before events later in the story but with a clear linkage. This ensures the audience is invested in the characters especially in the latter half as we get to know them better.

While DiCaprio can never deliver a bad performance and firmly grips the lead role as the intelligent yet comically clumbsy Bob, other actors shine making One Battle After Another an ensemble piece dripping with award worthy performances and hefty accolades.

DiCaprio improvises his way through the script with stutters and stammering enveloping his character with endearing qualities like forgetting a vital password or falling off a roof. Nonetheless, he possesses sentimenal and introspective moments towards his life and teenaged daughter, Willa Ferguson / Charlene Calhoun, played by Chase Infiniti.

Infiniti is tremendous in what is her breakout role playing a mixed race girl attempting to lead an everyday life while having to pay for the crimes and mistakes of her parents.

Playing confident, yet scared and vulnerable, Infiniti is quite the find. Is she destined to follow in her parents footsteps?

Teyana Taylor is brutally talented as she plays Perfidia Beverly Hills, a tough as nails, take no prisoner, kick ass young woman known to tease and humiliate her prey strictly for laughs.

Regina Hall and Benicio del Toro leverage their kind hearted and supportive characters with emotional flare and some needed humor especially on the part of del Toro.

The standout, however is Sean Penn. Giving a bravura performance as the hated and racist Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw, a military officer who pursues the French 75, he sneers and pouts, never playing the character over the top or for laughs.

He truly believes he comes from a superior race while bedding the women he despises.

A three-way highway car chase scene nearly rivals classic sequences in The French Connection (1971) and The Getaway (1972). As three separate drivers points of views are featured along a hilly highway with deadly results the audience is treated to rear view mirror and reaction shots.

I honestly did not know what would happen next and was delighted at the outcome.

Hopefully, as the years go by One Battle After Another (2025) will be remembered for embracing different genres and delivering a powerhouse final product. With great acting, editing, storytelling, and action the film has got it all.

Add in a timely message and you’ve got yourself a gem.

2023 Films, Alden Ehrenreich, Alex Wolff, Benny Safdie, Best Picture Oscar Winners, Biography, Casey Affleck, Christopher Nolan, Cillian Murphy, Drama, Emily Blunt, Epic, Florence Pugh, Gary Oldman, Gustaf Skarsgård, James Remar, Jason Clarke, Josh Hartnett, Kenneth Branagh, Matt Damon, Matthew Modine, Rami Malek, Robert Downey Jr., Tony Goldwyn

Oppenheimer-2023

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Oppenheimer-2023

Director Christopher Nolan

Starring Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr., Emily Blunt

Scott’s Review #1,384

Reviewed August 1, 2023

Grade: A

Knowing the films of Christopher Nolan who directed works like The Dark Knight Trilogy (2005-2012), Inception (2010), and Dunkirk (2017) I expected what I would be served with by his new film Oppenheimer (2023).

This would include a big booming soundtrack and an arguably more ‘guys’ genre film, but with intelligence, than other contemporary hits like Barbie (2023).

Dark and looming with complexities are usual for Nolan so I settled in for a three-hour epic journey centered on the atomic bomb and physics that has unexpectedly become a blockbuster.

Speaking of the pink phenomenon its simultaneous release with Oppenheimer led to the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon on social media, which encouraged audiences to see both films as a double feature.

This forever links the two vastly different films that were responsible for filling movie theaters once again.

I expected to enjoy Oppenheimer but was jarred (in a good way) by the sheer brilliance of its construction. Prepared for more mainstream fare that typically follows a biography or historical piece I was instead overly fascinated by the experimental elements enshrouding a more conventional film.

During World War II, Lieutenant Colonel Leslie Groves Jr. (Matt Damon) appoints physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) to work on the top-secret Manhattan Project.

Oppenheimer and a team of scientists spend years developing and designing the atomic bomb. Their work came to fruition on July 16, 1945, as they witnessed the world’s first nuclear explosion, forever changing the course of history.

The film is constructed marvelously in every way and is authentic to the eye. The first notice is that it feels like it’s the 1940s 1920s or 1960s or anywhere in between depending on where the film goes.

The art design, costumes, and makeup feel natural rather than stagey which helps its audience escape into the scientific world.

Speaking of, Nolan constructs the film in a series of pockets and goes back and forth between periods. We see Oppenheimer many times as an aspiring upstart with visions, a confident, established physicist, and in 1963 when President Lyndon B. Johnson presented him with the Enrico Fermi Award as a gesture of political rehabilitation.

His personal life is also explored.

Many, many scenes shift back and forth involving different characters at different ages. Most of the scenes in the 1940s take place in the desert at Los Alamos, New Mexico while the later years are set in a stuffy conference room where Oppenheimer is grilled for his left-leaning and suspected Communist politics.

The cinematography led by Hoyte van Hoytema provides some edgy moments especially when Oppenheimer descends into frightening and psychedelic hallucinations of those suffering the aftereffects of the atomic bomb. Images of peeling and melting faces are terrifying.

Cillian Murphy successfully makes Oppenheimer sympathetic especially after he creates the bomb and is left forgotten by his government.

Various moments in the film showcase Murphy at his best. After relinquishing his deadly bomb after a test the government callously tells Oppenheimer that ‘they’ll take it from here’. The look of dread, regret, and sadness in Murphy’s crystal blue eyes speaks volumes.

Another great scene occurs when President Harry S. Truman (Gary Oldman) a left-leaning democrat calls Oppenheimer ‘a crybaby’ when he expresses interest in returning land to the American Indians.

The supporting cast is a bevy of riches with several top-caliber actors appearing in cameos. My standouts in larger roles are Robert Downey Jr. shredding his Iron Man superhero persona as a slighted and venomous Lewis Strauss, intent on revoking Oppenheimer’s security clearance, and Emily Blunt as the boozy biologist and former communist wife of Oppenheimer.

My biggest takeaway from Oppenheimer (2023) though is a powerful one. The difference between the United States of America during and post World War II and in present times, 2023.

Then, a patriotic infrequently questioned nation brimming with pride and glory, where nationalism was rampant and expected and those with foreign respect were cast aside as traitorous.

Now, a divided country half of whom support an ideology based on hate, racism, and cultlike dedication to a corrupt ex-president, and the other focused on diversity inclusion, and equality for all.

This film resonated so powerfully well and in so many different ways.

Oscar Nominations: 7 wins-Best Picture (won), Best Director-Christopher Nolan (won), Best Actor-Cillian Murphy (won), Best Supporting Actor-Robert Downey Jr. (won), Best Supporting Actress-Emily Blunt, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing (won), Best Cinematography (won), Best Costume Design, Best Production Design, Best Original Score (won), Best Sound, Best Makeup and Hairstyling

2021 Films, Andy Bean, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Biography, Demi Singleton, Drama, Dylan McDermott, Jon Bernthal, Judith Chapman, Reinaldo Marcus Green, Saniyya Sidney, Sports, Tony Goldwyn, Will Smith

King Richard-2021

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King Richard-2021

Director Reinaldo Marcus Green

Starring Will Smith, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor

Scott’s Review #1,238

Reviewed March 13, 2022

Grade: B+

King Richard (2021) is an inspirational, feel-good Hollywood film with a strong message. It champions the little guy rising beyond expectations to achieve greatness.

Audiences will be left with a warm feeling of possibility and the idea that nearly anything can be achieved with hard work and determination.

The story of the world-famous tennis stars, the Williams sisters, and their parents, happens to be true, lending the necessary credibility to make this film quite enjoyable. It’s a conventional film that contains many cliches, yet it’s a heartwarming family drama.

Richard Williams (Will Smith) is determined to write his daughters, Venus and Serena, into the tennis history books while also keeping them educated and away from the drug-infested streets of Compton, California, where they reside.

Along with his wife Brandy (Aunjanue Ellis), they defy all odds in their meteoric rise to fame and fortune just as Richard had planned.

The Williams family’s story is told in an uplifting fashion as they face trials and tribulations along the way, like gang violence and racism. The sisters would soon become two of the world’s greatest sports legends.

An excellent performance by Smith leads the film, though I’m careful to make the bold statement that it’s his best role ever. I haven’t seen Ali (2001), but have heard he brings down the house in that role, again playing a real-life figure.

Time will tell.

The lesson learned about Smith is that when he skirts away from his usual summer popcorn blockbuster action roles, in which there are many, he is truly a great actor.

Plenty of backstories are given to Richard, and the violence and marginalization he has faced in his past, living as a child in Louisiana. His occasional shrewdness and feistiness can be forgiven as the character is explored very well.

Aunjanue Ellis, unknown to me before this film, is a revelation. As Brandy, in the assumed second-in-command supportive wife role, she does way more than one might have expected. In one tense scene, she lays down the law with Richard and refuses to play the second fiddle.

Ellis brings a subdued toughness and quiet to the role that not all actresses can bring.

The casting all around is strong. Saniyya Sidney and Demi Singleton as Venus and Serena are believable, though they are not given the material that Smith and Ellis are afforded.

Delightful are Jon Bernthal and Tony Goldwyn in supporting roles as coaches.

Director Reinaldo Marcus Green sticks to a straight-ahead approach and achieves his intended goal. He forges into R-rated territory with some of the gang relationships and an occasional racist remark.

Still, the effect is soft-touch only, and the main message is how a struggling black family can succeed.

I enjoyed the depictions of California and then sunny Florida throughout the 1980s and the 1990s, and finally into more recent times. It felt realistic and appropriate to the film, especially when real-life incidents like the Rodney King police beatings were shown.

The editing team is flawless, especially in the multiple tennis match sequences, which are very difficult to shoot and make seem real. The continuity is exceptional and a massive undertaking.

A safe passage and not a film to be watched a second time or dissected much with post-credit discussions, King Richard (2021) is nonetheless a winner. It provides enough positive vibes to leave its viewers smiling and determined to beat any odds.

Oscar Nominations: 1 win-Best Picture, Best Actor-Will Smith (won), Best Supporting Actress-Aunjanue Ellis, Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Original Song-“Be Alive”

1986 Films, Horror, Jason Voorhees, Slasher, Tony Goldwyn

Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives-1986

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Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives-1986

Director Tom McLoughlin

Starring Thom Mathews, Jennifer Cooke

Scott’s Review #1,074

Reviewed October 26, 2020

Grade: B-

Due to the fan outrage that surrounded Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985), a film I thought was decent, the powers that be decided that a return to form was in order, quickly resurrecting Jason in the corniest of ways.

Re-discovering the “real Jason” is not the worst idea in the world but the execution is not there and I’m not crazy about the introduction of “superhuman” Jason.

How is anyone supposed to ever kill him?

Adding comedy and children is okay with me but both ideas largely fall flat when paired with inadequate acting and gimmicky sitcom situations with no character development. There is no time invested in getting to know any of the characters.

The heavy metal soundtrack, featuring the music of Alice Cooper, is the best part.

The film isn’t helped by a slicker 1980s visual look though this does come with better production values.

Not the greatest of all the Fridays.

The chapter gets off to a compelling start when Tommy (Thom Mathews) and his friend Allen Hawes (Ron Palillo- yes, Horshack from the Welcome Back Kotter television series) trudge through the rain and mud back to Camp Crystal Lake to finally bury Tommy’s demons.

Fans of the series will recall that Tommy did a stint in Pinehurst Halfway House and a pretend Jason went on a killing spree to avenge his son’s death.

The friends dig up the grave of Jason. The murderer is struck by lightning and magically comes back to life, killing Allen. Tommy spends the rest of the film trying to warn the town that Jason is alive and well and back on a deadly rampage.

The camp has been renamed to the more pleasant-sounding Forest Green to make people forget that numerous killings have ever taken place. This seems to have worked as a busload of kids flock to the camp for a summer of fun along with the usual batch of camp counselors in tow.

To the film’s credit, like with its predecessor, there is a black character, this time a counselor named Sissy Baker (Renee Jones), and some of the child characters offer different ethnicities.

The diversity and inclusiveness are to be admired, but unfortunately for Sissy, she is dragged through a window and savagely beheaded.

Jason kindly spares the kids.

I like how there is consistency in keeping the main character Tommy Jarvis, albeit with a different actor. We’ll probably never know why it was decided to recast John Shepherd with Thom Mathews, but the actors look enough alike to avoid too much confusion.

Like Shepherd, Mathews possesses a wounded look which makes the casting adequate.

There is a rooting quality to Tommy especially as he faces adversity with the police department. Sheriff Garris and Deputy Rick are played purely as foils and are a roadblock to capturing Jason.

Any attempt at romantic chemistry between Tommy and Megan (Jennifer Cooke) falls flat because there simply isn’t any between the actors, try as they might. Neither are the best actors in the world (not a requirement for the horror genre) but do have the right, fresh-faced look warranted to be cast.

Megan is the only person who believes Tommy as they race to the camp to stop and kill Jason.

The rest of the film is more of the same and offers no surprises except for more humor. A coked-up pair having sex in a motorhome and a group of corporate types on a paintball outing are examples of this. The four “suits” beheaded by a machete are the best part of the otherwise campy and obnoxious sequence.

The rest of the characters are killed off systematically with nothing especially interesting to add to the film.

Writer and director Tom McLoughlin attempts to revitalize the aging series and genre with more special effects and techniques and does little else to freshen his characters. It would have been nice to get to know some of them better.

By 1986 the slasher film needed rest and Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives is a dull entry in the series catalog.

There is nothing terrible about the film, nor is there anything memorable either.