One Battle After Another – Movie Review

TL;DR – This is a chaotic, uncomfortable, taut, and downright weird film, but it is also completely captivating from the opening frame to the closing credits.  

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid to watch this film.

A road meandering up and down over some hills.

Setting the Scene

2025 has been an odd year for noted Indie directors trying to tackle the political situation in America at the moment, because most of them have floundered in the attempt. They have been trying to capture the moment, but their stories get lost in comedic attempts or a poor understanding of the very topics they want to analyse. However, today we are looking at a film that just might have cracked the code with one secret weapon that gets lost in cinema at times, intentionality.   

So, to set the scene, we open as a number of self-labelled revolutionaries, including Pat Calhoun (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor), who are staking out an immigration detention facility near the border in California. In the middle of the night, they strike, liberating the camp and beginning their revolution against corporate and oppressive elements of America. The French 75 group places bombs in courthouses, robs banks, and causes general calamity. However, you don’t make that much noise without attracting foes, and little do they know that Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn) is hunting them all down, or maybe just Perfidia.   

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C*A*U*G*H*T: Season 1 – TV Review

TL;DR – While it never truly commits to its absurdist premise, there are moments when it shines.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Stan service that viewed this film.

The Hostages.

C*A*U*G*H*T Review –

There is a version of Australian comedy that takes a very irreverential look at power structures. Where no one is immune from the castigation, it is within this space that we find ourselves today, delving into a geo-political quagmire that only Australia could do.   

So to set the scene, we open on a hostage video in progress as four captured Australian soldiers, Rowdy Gaines (Ben O’Toole), Albhanis Mouawad (Lincon Younes), Phil Choi (Alexander England), and Dylan Fox (Kick Gurry), on the island nation of Behati-Prinsloo plead for their lives. It is heartbreaking as the prisoners are attacked on camera when they don’t follow the script, even more so for the Australian government, which officially states that it has no armed forces in the region. It is a simple call for help … help to survive … help not to be murdered … until the cameras cut, and the four celebrate how good the take was. Now from here, we will be looking at the season as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.    

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Licorice Pizza – Movie Review

TL;DR – One of the funniest and engaging films I have seen this year, but also an experience that made me deeply uncomfortable in places.     

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film

Licorice Pizza. Image Credit: Universal Pictures.

Licorice Pizza Review

There have been several films I have watched this year, but I don’t think any of them left such a complicated feeling with me as I left the cinema. This was a film that was a roller coaster that you strapped into at the start, and it never let you go. But it was an old roller coaster, so some sections rattle a bit more than they should (for my Brisbane fam, image the Thunderbolt towards the end of its life).

So to set the scene, we open in San Fernando Valley on a school picture day. Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman) is with his friends as they prime themselves to get the best picture, while Alana Kane (Alana Haim) is working with the photo company. When Gary and Alana first meet, there is an instant connection even though they come from different worlds. Well, those worlds now collide all across 1973, Los Angeles.

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