Movie Review: One Battle After Another (2025)

Genre: Action Thriller  

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson  

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, Chase Infiniti  

Running Time: 162 minutes  

Synopsis: Bob Ferguson (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor) are lovers and members of the far-left revolutionary group "French 75". They conduct operations to free detained illegal immigrants, and in one of their raids Perfidia humiliates military officer Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn). He develops an intense hatred towards the group while also lusting after Perfidia, who is soon pregnant. After giving birth to Willa she is arrested and the rest of the group members flee into hiding, with Bob looking after Willa as his daughter. Sixteen years later Lockjaw has reasons to find Willa (Chase Infiniti), triggering a mad pursuit and forcing the reluctant Bob back into action.

What Works Well: This is a high energy chase thriller, powered by an edgy political and racial premise, memorable characters, spiky humour, and an original, tense and pulsing music soundtrack. Writer and director Paul Thomas Anderson pokes fun at left and right alike, anti-government revolutionaries devolving into potheads and right-wing nut-cases wallowing in contradictions. With no middle ground, the future available to Willa is grim, as she awakens to a mother who turned traitor, a father lacking any motivation, and worst of all, she's the only high school kid not allowed a cell phone. Teyana Taylor is a force of nature as Perfidia, and the film is poorer when she is sidelined, but Benicio Del Toro fills the gap as an unflappable martial arts instructor.

What Does Not Work As Well: The running time is beyond bloated, with lax editing resulting in almost every scene running well longer than needed. And all the extra time is invested in stylistic extensions rather than the human condition: the main characters barely progress in outlook, understanding, or self-awareness.

Key Quote:

Lockjaw (in a meeting with white nationalists): Gentlemen, I have engaged the enemy face to face in battle, and in the dark alleys and shadows of espionage. I was once raped in reverse.

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Movie Review: Shaft (2019)

Genre: Action  

Director: Tim Story  
Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Jessie T. Usher, Richard Roundtree, Regina Hall, Alexandra Shipp  
Running Time: 112 minutes  

Synopsis: In Harlem of 1989, private investigator John Shaft (Samuel L. Jackson) is ambushed by thugs working for gang leader Gordito. Shaft's girlfriend Maya (Regina Hall) is fed-up with the violence and leaves him, taking Shaft's young son J.J. with her. 20 years later, J.J. (Jessie T. Usher) is an analyst working at the FBI's New York office. When his best friend Karim dies under suspicious circumstances, J.J seeks his father's help to investigate. Father and son need to get re-acquainted, while the trail of evidence leads to a mosque, a veteran support group, and none other than Gordito. When more firepower is needed, Shaft turns to his legendary father John Shaft Sr. (Richard Roundtree) for support.

What Works Well: The fifth film in the series that started in 1971, this version benefits from Samuel L. Jackson in top form oozing confidence and swagger, and the ultimately irresistible premise of three generations of John Shaft joining forces to eliminate evil. The sharp script (by Kenya Barris and Alex Barnow) is filled with humour, profanity, and zingers, and packed with loud and intense action scenes. The rapid-fire father-son interactions are juiced by clashing inter-generational perspectives and a few character-driven surprises (J.J. does not like guns, until he does).

What Does Not Work As Well: The plot is overcomplicated, but also underexplained and reduced to filler material between the action set-pieces and buddy-movie dynamics. The balance tilts too far towards jovial, sanding-off the character's edge and any sense of jeopardy.

Key Quote:

Shaft: In general, women want a man... to be manly.

J.J.: I'm pretty sure women don't like being told what it is that they like.

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Movie Review: Breaking News In Yuba County (2021)

Genre: Dark Comedy  

Director: Tate Taylor  
Starring: Allison Janney, Mila Kunis, Regina Hall, Juliette Lewis, Ellen Barkin, Matthew Modine, Awkwafina  

Running Time: 96 minutes  

Synopsis: In Kentucky, timid Sue Buttons (Allison Janney) is married to banker Karl (Matthew Modine), who is not only ignoring her and having an affair, but also laundering money for a local mobster. Sue is impressed by television personality Gloria Michaels (Juliette Lewis), who is covering the story of a missing teenager. When Karl drops dead, Sue senses an opportunity to finally get the world to notice her: she secretly buries Karl and reports him missing. Soon she is basking in the media spotlight as the distraught wife, but also attracting the attention of Karl's criminal associates and police detective Harris (Regina Hall).

What Works Well: In a breezy opening act, Sue is introduced as drifting through life with an unwanted cloak of invisibility, her birthday forgotten by all including her half-sister (Mila Kunis). Hubby Karl's mid-thrust death is funny.

What Does Not Work As Well: The rest of the movie flounders into unoriginal silliness derived from To Die For and the Coens, but with neither zest nor wit. The clutter of secondary characters (including a couple of goons and their boss, Karl's lover, ex-con brother, the brother's ditzy boss, her lover, detective Harris, and her partner) stumble over each other, some carrying unearned attitudes but all of them lacking substance. Recognizing the congested narrative dead-end, writer Amanda Idoko rushes into a mad killing spree, chasing the misguided notion that every additional murder relieves the burden of coherence.

Key Quote:

Detective Harris: Mrs. Buttons, usually in a missing persons case, people call the police before calling the media.

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Movie Review: Law Abiding Citizen (2009)

An action thriller, Law Abiding Citizen poses tough questions about the justice system then wades into a murky puddle of muddled loyalties.

In Philadelphia, government employee Clyde Shelton (Gerard Butler) witnesses the murder of his wife and daughter in a violent home invasion by criminals Ames and Darby. The assailants are arrested and charged; Ames is sentenced to death, but as a result of a plea bargain approved by prosecuting attorney Nick Rice (Jamie Foxx), Darby escapes with nothing more than a five year prison sentence.

Ten years later, Ames suffers a painful death in a botched execution by lethal injection. Darby is kidnaped and tortured to death by Clyde, who then surrenders. Nick and his boss District Attorney Jonas Cantrell (Bruce McGill) try to extract a confession, but Clyde is just starting an elaborate revenge plot targeting Nick and the entire flawed justice system. 

Half of an entertaining vigilante thriller, Law Abiding Citizen starts with a bang. Director F. Gary Gray and writer Kurt Wimmer create an unflinching nightmare as, in short order, Clyde loses everything then suffers again at the hands of a misfiring judicial process. The 10-year zip forward is effective, and the uncompromising revenge extracted upon the home invaders sets up what should have been a hard-hitting second half.

But towards the middle of the film Gray loses control. Law Abiding Citizen stalls in a series of increasingly far-fetched murders and atrocities veering well away from any rational vendetta. Clyde psychologically drifts from likeable victim seeking elaborate but morally justified revenge towards a mayhem-loving psychopath, while an awkward and ultimately unsuccessful U-turn attempts to place Nick at the plot's sympathetic centre. The unsatisfying climax short-changes both men and challenges time and space logic.

Despite the notable fade, many memorable moments are on offer, including a gotcha courtroom meltdown, a bloody jail cell episode, and a dangerous phone call in a judge's office. Gerard Butler and Jamie Foxx contribute plenty of presence without needing to stretch. They are well supported by Leslie Bibb as an up-and-coming prosecutor, Regina Hall as Nick's wife, and Viola Davis as a Mayor increasingly concerned by the explosion of violence in her city.

Law Abiding Citizen is first a man with a plan, then pain without gain.



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Movie Review: Support The Girls (2018)

A slice of life drama with some humour, Support The Girls spends a day with a resourceful but harried woman doing the best she can to stay emotionally afloat while helping others.

In Texas, Lisa (Regina Hall) is the exhausted general manager of Double Whammies, a sports-themed restaurant where the main attraction is young women servers hired to reveal curves and skin. Lisa does her best to look after the well-being of her girls, including single mom Danyelle (Shayna McHayle) and the bubbly Maci (Haley Lu Richardson). On this day Lisa scrambles to organize a car wash to raise money for her daughter-in-law Shaina, who may be in legal trouble for running over her no-good boyfriend. 

Meanwhile a would-be safe burglar is trapped in the restaurant's ceiling vent and the cable system is cut-off, with customers expecting to watch a big fight tonight. Server Krista is also having a breakdown after impetuously getting a large tattoo of basketball star Steph Curry. Lisa's personal life with husband Cameron is disintegrating, and she gets into an argument with restaurant owner Ben Cubby (James LeGros), who is worried about the ManCave national chain moving into the area and diluting his business.

Two thirds of a good film, Support The Girls peeks into the lives of often invisible working class women who sacrifice everything to keep the economy ticking. Director and writer Andrew Bujalski locates Double Whammies in a corner of a generic strip mall in a featureless Texas suburb, a utilitarian sense of place where bikers, truckers and men with their tolerant families just want to enjoy a burger and the game with a side of bare midriffs and a bit of cleavage.

Lisa is the resourceful guardian angel, carrying the weight of everyone's problems on her shoulders, bending every rule for the benefit of social survival. The car wash is off the books, job applicants pressed into service to raise money for one young woman who dared to stand up to her abusive boyfriend. She deploys Danyelle as a secret seductive agent to secure free rent for a sound system. When Lisa comes face to face with the inept burglar, she reveals what she knows to the person who needs to know, and no one else. And with a ferocious mama bear growl she stands up to a burly customer who dares to body shame one of her girls.

But this may be the day when Lisa finds her limit. Sleazy owner Cubby pushes too hard, she takes stock of what and why she is sacrificing, and decides to test a new attitude. She learns of secrets being kept from her, but finds ultimate disappointment in another woman's abandonment of self-respect, the antithesis of all Lisa stands for. 

Bujalski then hits a relatively early wall, the final third moving sideways then surrendering to raw hollering at abject nothingness. But in a pragmatic performance Regina Hall keeps the heart of the film throbbing, conveying plenty of can-do spirit to solve problems created by others, but also exposing the hurt within. Stretched to the limit and then stretching again, Lisa is everywoman toiling to keep food on needy tables and the wolves on a leash.

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Movie Review: The Hate U Give (2018)

A Black Lives Matter drama, The Hate U Give delves into the virulent issues and racial schisms tearing away at the American social fabric.

16 year old Starr Carter (Amandla Stenberg) lives with her family in the rough and underprivileged black neighbourhood of Garden Heights, which is awash in drugs distributed by the network of crime lord King (Anthony Mackie). Her father Maverick (Russell Hornsby) is a convenience store owner and proud of his black heritage. He previously served prison time for drug dealing but extricated himself from the crime world by not snitching on King.

At the insistence of her mother Lisa (Regina Hall), Starr and her two brothers attend the predominantly white Williamson private school. In this milieu Starr does her best to blend in and hide her neighbourhood roots, including from her school besties Hailey and Maya and boyfriend Chris (K.J. Apa). But when she witnesses a brutal police shooting involving her friend from childhood Khalil (Algee Smith), Starr finds it increasingly difficult to live in two worlds at once.

With the prevalence of seemingly unprovoked police shootings of black men plaguing the nation, The Hate U Give dives into the deep end of the churning pool and asks questions about causes, accountability, and the search for solutions. But this is also an adaptation of a 2017 Young Adult book by Angie Thomas, and so while the film registers an often fearsome impact, it does suffer from an overload of dramatic events and a relatively pat ending inconsistent with the most of what preceded it.

Directed by George Tillman Jr. from an Audrey Wells script, The Hate U Give makes for a suitable if purely fictional companion piece to 2013's Fruitvale Station. By taking the perspective of a young woman trying to fit into two different realities located in adjacent neighbourhoods but an entire world apart, Tillman is able to tease out the contradictory forces, moral conundrums and crosscurrents at play in one community and throughout the country.

Compelling dilemmas abound. Starr's own parents cannot agree whether to stay in or leave Garden Heights. The white students at Williamson want to support the Black Lives Matter movement, but through Starr's eyes the activism of her white privileged classmates smacks of cause-of-the-week opportunism to cut classes. Her friendships are tested when naive moral equivalencies are drawn between the black and white experience.

And most fundamentally, Starr can testify against the police officer involved in the shooting, but this will unveil her two-identity existence and endanger her family by incurring the wrath of drug lord King, who employed the victim Khalil as a street-level drug dealer.

While Starr and her family are subjected to a few too many tense moments during the course of the film, Amandla Stenberg rides out the drama with admirable subtlety. Her performance is filled with tender perception and an awakening to the worst the world has to offer. As ever more difficult options open up to Starr, Stenberg creates the time and space for her character to genuinely struggle with what it means to lose the comfort of dual identity but find a voice.

With the twin evils of drugs and racism presenting a formidable continuum of violence, The Hate U Give Little Infants F**ks Everybody (Thug Life) is the film's formidable theme (inspired by Tupac Shakur). The circle of life can easily be perverted into the circle of hate, and the Starrs have to shine for any progress to be made.

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