I’m Trevor with the Sasquatch Movie Minute and we are running down my ranking of the 10 nominees for Oscars BEST PICTURE 2025.

 

#5 is ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

 

What an exhilarating film; full of humor and thrills and big-league acting. This is PTA doing his high-artistic version of an action film and wow does he succeed! The plot zigs and zags and the actors get to chew the scenery. There are a lot of parallels to our modern society and a nostalgic look at rebellion and revolution for change. The film does exist in a slightly surreal, absurd world, mostly exhibited by the humor and Penn’s Lockjaw character, which did make it hard for me to emotionally connect with the characters.

 

Best Scene. Benecio del Toro’s character walks DiCpario through his revolution headquarters, passing by operatives, families, refugees, all while DiCaprio is oblivious, trying to charge his phone. Not only it is it a feat of smooth camerawork, but I love how the revelation of this rebellion framework wordlessly deepens the respect we have for del Toro’s silly karate instructor.

 

Best performance. We have heard plenty of deserved accolades for Dicaprio, Penn, del Toro, Teyana Taylor and Chase Infiniti, but I wanted to give a little shout-out for Regina Hall. She is known mostly as an extremely gifted comedic actress, but here she goes quiet and soulful. She brings a tremendous amount of heart to counterbalance some of the lunacy.

 

The rhythm of this action tale is very different from your usual shootemup thrillride, but its well worth the trip.