One Battle After Another – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

MOVIE OF THE WEEK January 9, 2026: Team MOTW’s Favorite Oscar Contenders

January 4, 2026January 15, 2026 Jennifer Merin Belén, BLUE MOON, Hamnet, If I Had Legs I'd Kick You, Left-Handed Girl, motw, Movie of the Week, One Battle After Another, oscar contenders, Rental Family, Sinners, Weapons

Movie awards presentation is an industry unto itself. Awards season has expanded in duration to include more than the entire year. It starts in January with awards buzz erupting out of Sundance Film Festival — even before the previous year’s awards season has culminated with the Oscars gala presentation that’s staged in early March. It’s truly a challenge to keep up with the countless award-eligible movies that are released throughout the year or seen at film festivals, and for awards voters, making lists, discussing and advocating for award-worthy titles is a year round preoccupation. At AWFJ, determining our EDA Awards nominees involves elimination of titles in order to reach consensus. But even after consensus is reached, everyone has personal favorites that may or may not have landed on our official list of nominees. This week, Team MOTW members recommend their favorite award contenders for your watch list. Click film titles for links to full reviews.

Reviews

ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER – Review by Cate Marquis

December 25, 2025December 28, 2025 Cate Marquis Benecio Del Toro, Chase Infiniti, flickphilosopher, leonardo di caprio, One Battle After Another, paul thomas anderson, regina hall, sean penn, Teyana Taylor, Thomas Pynchon

In the action/comedy/thriller One Battle After Another director Paul Thomas Anderson gives us a paragon of top-notch film-making, outstanding from a technical viewpoint and electrifying as cinema to boot. But what really won me over is the “dad” story at the center of it all. Fellow revolutionaries and lovers Bob Ferguson (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor) are committed to changing the world through acts of sabotage that disrupt the flow of money to the top while not hurting people. But when Perfidia becomes pregnant and gives birth, everything changes

Reviews

ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER – Review by Valerie Kalfrin

October 1, 2025October 2, 2025 Valerie Kalfrin Benecio Del Toro, Chase Infiniti, flickphilosopher, leonardo di caprio, One Battle After Another, paul thomas anderson, regina hall, sean penn, Teyana Taylor, Thomas Pynchon

The revolution might not be televised, to paraphrase a ’70s song, but it rages on in One Battle After Another, a kinetic and often darkly comedic film about political stances and personal consequences. Gil Scott-Heron’s famous Black Liberation song is just one of the threads in writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson’s tapestry about a group of radicals, the authorities after them, and a young woman caught in the middle.

Reviews

ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER – Review by MaryAnn Johanson

September 30, 2025September 30, 2025 MaryAnn Johanson Benecio Del Toro, Chase Infiniti, flickphilosopher, leonardo di caprio, One Battle After Another, paul thomas anderson, regina hall, sean penn, Teyana Taylor, Thomas Pynchon

A big glorious hunk of a film: brash, chaotic, despairing about the state of the nation but trying to find a way to survive it. It’s shocking to see that a big-budget studio endeavor with blockbuster vibes over an anarchic indie heart got produced at all, even a few years ago. It’s impossible to imagine that we will see its like again anytime soon.

Reviews

ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER – Review by T.J.Callahan

September 24, 2025September 26, 2025 T. J. Callahan Benecio Del Toro, Chase Infiniti, leonardo di caprio, One Battle After Another, paul thomas anderson, regina hall, sean penn, Teyana Taylor, Thomas Pynchon

Director Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest epic, his most expensive yet, is on the biggest screen available and ready to make you laugh and cringe. One Battle After Another, based on a Thomas Pynchon novel, is about a group of vigilantes out to right the wrongs they feel are bringing down our country, but when a bank robbery they are involved in goes awry, the revolutionaries go into hiding…until,16 years later, an evil enemy resurfaces. Now the resistance must re-unite to rescue the daughter of one of their own.