312, One Battle After Another

I really don't undestand the Oscars sometimes.

I do understand they like to push the envelope and recognise aspects of movies that would normally just pass right over the regular casual viewer and I also know stories that highlight issues or are prominent in current society (either by luck or judgement) seem to do well, but I am still struggling to see the reasons behind this movie winning Best Film at this years Oscars.

Let's break this down - One Battle After Another is clearly defined by two main acts, seperated over a period of 16 years.

Act 1:  We meet a band of 'vigilante rebels' fighting for a cause (of which, to the outside world could easily be seen as terorrism) yet, we are sided with them as we see their plight of rescuing illegal immigrants from horrific compounds along the mexican border.  

Their approach however is violent and reckless - led by Perfidia (Teyana Taylor) and supported by love interest Bob (DiCaprio) as an explosives expert, the whole crew have no bones about rescuing illegals one minute and then commiting armed robbery the next.

Oddly - they aren't the main protagonists - that honour falls to Col. Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn) as the Military leader in charge of the immigrant compounds and after coming across Perfidia and her crew, develops a form of unhealthy, demasculated obsession with her as he then works tirelessely to hunt her down.

Perfidia then has a baby (assumingly belonging to Bob) at which point Bob realises their focus has to switch to responsible parenting - but is dismissed by a selfish Perfidia, who's sees the affection and love that Bob once showed her now focussed on their baby girl and basically leaves them both.  She ends up on the run, alone; until Lockjaw catches up with her and after being forced to turn rat on her crew, sees Bob, the baby daughter (Charlene) and other crew members go into hiding - which for most of them, is unsuccessfull.

Act 2 jumps forward 16yrs with a teenage Charlene (played by Chase Infiniti) living very low-key lifestyle with Bob, now an anxious, paranoid addict and it all kicks off again when Lockjaw resurfaces - on the hunt for Charlene (reasons are made clear in the movie) and it's the new circle of support around Bob & Charlene, including Sensai Sergio St. Carlos (Benicio Del Toro) who has taken up the mantle of housing illegal immigrants, helped out by friends & family and managing to evade the authorities by any means necessary, who rally round a seemingly incapable Bob to get them both safe.

All sounds amazing right, what's not to like?  Well, from start to finish I just didn't get this movie.  I couldn't work out if it was designed to make heroes out of terrorists - or slander the military with their portrayal of Lockjaw and his processes and mannerism's.

From an actors perspective - DiCaprio was as always, the awesome professional - completely engaged in his character and playing a brilliant submissive to Taylors dominant Perfidia, who was as sexy as she was ruthless & selfish.  Del Toro was brilliant as well but it was the performace from Penn as the single minded, unhinged militant protagonist that appeared almost comedic initially, but soon turns to chilling & obsessive with a need for white supremicist validation and in the end, sheer blinded vengeance that for many, will steal the show.

Was he worthy of the Best Supporting Actor gong?  Well, that's down to the Academy - he certainly went all-in on the character but that said, DiCaprio losing out to Michael B. Jordan (for Sinners) is also one I didn't see coming.

The movie just didn't seem to have a point to it.  I didn't know who we were supposed to side with - the Rebellion was mean, vicious and reckless & the Military was overbearing and sadistic.  You want to side with Bob, but he was basically hopeless and you constantly wonder how he managed to bumble though 16yrs of hiding without getting caught so you are left with Charlene, who seems to be a vigilant, stand-up, dedicated and intelligent humnan being but as you'll find out at the end - the apple never falls far from the tree.

The most annoying thing for me in this movie was the soundtrack.  Don't get me wrong, some will say it's an atmospheric masterpeice and to take a quote from the internet;

"The piano music in One Battle After Another (2025), composed by Jonny Greenwood, is a deliberate, tense score using a "pedal tone" technique - repeating a single note over changing chords. This creates a constant, anxious and rhythmic backdrop designed to feel like a "metronome of suspense, " mirroring the ongoing, generational struggles of the characters"

So - that's nice and specific, but OMG it gets annoying and tedious after about an hour! For me, it ended up being all I could focus on! Like that annoying dripping tap or squeaky floorboard.  It dominated the whole movie and sadly as a result, after a while I'd checked out completely.  Sorry Jonny, I'm sure it's not your fault.

This should have been the type of film I'd rave about.  Regular readers will know from my 300+ blogs preceeding this one, I don't always need a captivating storyline or even a believable plot to fall in love with a film.  This movie is fast paced with tonnes of action, fights, great characters and strong, well-known actors playing them but it was all just too random, chaotic and the piano was so completely overwhelming that all the enjoyment of what it should have been was completely lost.

I have left out loads of plot lines and back-stories in this blog for good reason.  It's close to 3hrs long and I'll be brutally honest, I had to google the ending as after 2hrs 10mins, both me and my wife either lost complete intertest in what was going on - or were so confused by the whole thing we really didn't care what happened to any of the surviving characters.

I saw this at home, on Sky TV as one of the their 'Cinema Premiers' but I genuinly think had we have gone to the cinema - we wouldn't have made it all the way through either and sadly, that's coming from someone who sat though the entire 90 mins of "Movie 43" (Blog: 238)

One Battle After Another is a six time Oscar Winner and includes a a highly acclaimed cast that will probably have fans raving about it for generation to come, just not this one.

(Images used in blog are sourced from Golden Globes, NPR, Arts Knoxville, ScriptShadow, Deadline, Biff Bam Pop!, Fanfare & High on Films)