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2025 Films, Action, Alana Haim, Benicio del Toro, Chase Infiniti, Crime Thriller, Kevin Tighe, 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.

#57 Favorite Film, 1967 Films, Alice Ghostley, Anne Bancroft, Buck Henry, Comedy, Dustin Hoffman, Elizabeth Wilson, Favorite Film of the Year, Katharine Ross, Kevin Tighe, Mike Farrell, Mike Nichols, Murray Hamilton, Norman Fell, Richard Dreyfuss, Romantic Comedy, Top 100 Films, Top 250 Films, William Daniels

The Graduate-1967

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The Graduate-1967

Director Mike Nichols

Starring Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft

Top 250 Films #57

Scott’s Review #335

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Reviewed January 9, 2016

Grade: A

The Graduate is an immeasurable success and highly influential comedy from 1967- a time when films were gaining creative freedoms and pushing the envelope in new, edgy ideas and risqué subject matters.

Almost scandalous at the time of release, the film holds up exceptionally well after all these years and remains fresh and cutting-edge.

It is slick, sophisticated, and quite funny, though peppered with dark humor.

Thanks to Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft, the film succeeds and remains among my all-time favorites.

Hoffman plays Benjamin Braddock, a nervous and insecure recent college graduate who returns home to sunny California, unsure of what his future holds.

His overbearing parents throw a lavish celebration at their home, where Benjamin is flocked by well-wishers, most of whom have a materialistic edge to them. His parents live in a very affluent community where wealth and items are of great importance.

All Benjamin wants to do is be by himself. At the party, Benjamin is pursued by the much older and glamorous Mrs. Robinson (Bancroft), who lives nearby and asks Benjamin for a ride home.

Her attempted seduction of him sets the film’s narrative in motion, as their relationship unfolds, particularly when Mrs. Robinson’s daughter, Elaine (Katharine Ross), enters the picture and captures Benjamin’s heart.

Director Mike Nichols successfully sets the right tone for the film, and we see the style and the sophistication of wealthy California in the 1960s.

Fashion, style, and glamour are prevalent, but they go against what Benjamin and Elaine stand for.

The film is also an exploration of generations. Benjamin’s parents and all their friends are into material things, such as cars, houses, and parties.

The triangle between Benjamin, Mrs. Robinson, and Elaine is the heart of the film. At first, we find ourselves rooting for Benjamin and Mrs. Robinson. There is a sweet nature to their romance. She is the aggressor- mature, in control, and confident, whereas Benjamin is insecure and shy, yet enamored with Mrs. Robinson.

Their awkward exchange in the hotel bar and their liaison in the hotel room are fantastic scenes.

Slowly, once Elaine emerges, Mrs. Robinson becomes more manipulative, taking on a villainous character, as the youngster’s love blossoms, and we begin to root for their happiness.

A fantastic aspect of The Graduate is its musical soundtrack, which was composed entirely by Simon and Garfunkel, a central musical duo of the late 1960s, from the opening chords of ‘The Sound of Silence’, to the appropriate ‘Mrs. Robinson’, the music adds much life and energy to the film and was successful at attracting young viewers at the time.

The featured soundtrack was highly influential to other films released after The Graduate.

Still fresh today, The Graduate (1967) launched the very successful career of Dustin Hoffman and emerged as an inspirational film that, though controversial in its day, seems tame now; however, the writing remains as crisp as it ever was.

A film to watch over and over again.  

Oscar Nominations: 1 win– Best Picture, Best Director-Mike Nichols (won), Best Actor-Dustin Hoffman, Best Actress-Anne Bancroft, Best Supporting Actress-Katharine Ross, Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium, Best Cinematography

2009 Films, Horror, Jaime King, Jensen Ackles, Kerr Smith, Kevin Tighe, Patrick Lussier, Slasher, Tom Atkins

My Bloody Valentine-2009

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My Bloody Valentine-2009

Director Patrick Lussier

Starring Jensen Ackles, Jaime King

Scott’s Review #604

Reviewed January 11, 2017

Grade: B

What can I say? The remake of the classic slasher film from 1981 is a very slick version of the perfect Valentine’s Day treat- My Bloody Valentine.

To compare the 2009 offering to the original is unfair since I consider that one top-notch. This version is what I expected it to be.

Though several aspects of it were changed from the original, it was entertaining all the same.

The sleepy mining town that the film is set in becomes immersed in scandal as a string of grisly murders occurs in one of the town mines. It is revealed that a tragic accident occurred at one time causing several deaths. The one remaining victim awakens from a coma and goes on a killing spree.

At the same time, youths throw a party near the mine and a series of deaths begin again.

The 3-D effects are necessary for a film like this because, without them, this movie would have been as generic as anything else in the same style.

The story is lame and implausible, and the characters are dumb, but looking past all that, as I usually do in the horror genre, this was a fun ride.

Lots of gore, nudity, violence, and a few genuine scares.