Amy Madigan in ‘The Dark Half’. Photo: Orion Pictures.
Following the public’s realization that Thad Beaumont and George Stark (Timothy Hutton) are one and the same, the former stages a mock funeral, only for a series of gruesome murders to begin occurring as in his books.
The unconventional love story of an aspiring actress (Lily Collins), her ambitious driver (Alden Ehrenreich), and their eccentric boss, the legendary billionaire Howard Hughes (Warren Beatty).
After discovering a box of old love letters sent to her mother by a mysterious stranger, Anna (Jamie Lee Curtis), a young radio deejay, begins a torrid affair with a married man. Burning attraction brings them together, but the reality does not come close to the passion expressed in the letters.
Marine officer Rob Cutter (Daniel Hugh Kelly) and his wife Barbara (Madigan) have a son named Johnny (Robin MacEachem). Rob discovers that two newly delivered helicopters in his squadron have crashed because a defective part, a C-ring, has been made of a weaker, less expensive alloy. Before Rob can go public with this, Rob is killed on the orders of corrupt General Howard (John Colicos), who did not want Rob to go public with the defective part. Howard believes that Barbara, who is also a marine, now has the part, so Howard and his henchmen set out to kill Barbara and Johnny and get the part, but Howard is underestimating what Barbara is willing to do to protect Johnny.
Actress Reese Holden (Zooey Deschanel) has been offered a small fortune by a book editor if she can secure for publication the love letters that her father (Ed Harris), a reclusive novelist, wrote to her mother, who has since passed away. Returning to Michigan, Reese finds that an ex-grad student (Amelia Warner) and a would-be musician (Will Ferrell) have moved in with her father, who cares more about his new friends than he does about his own health and well-being.
(L to R) Ed Harris and Amy Madigan in ‘Alamo Bay’. Photo: Tri-Star Pictures.
A despondent Vietnam veteran (Ed Harris) in danger of losing his livelihood is pushed to the edge when he sees Vietnamese immigrants moving into the fishing industry in a Texas bay town.
A former valedictorian (Kristen Bell) quits her reporter job in New York and returns to the place she last felt happy: her childhood home in Connecticut. She gets work as a lifeguard and starts a dangerous relationship with a troubled teenager.
In the late 1800s, a fanatical religious leader (Jason Isaacs), a renegade Sheriff (Ed Harris), and a former prostitute (January Jones) collide in a blood triangle on the rugged plains of the New Mexico Territory.
The true story of Terry Jean Moore (Madigan), a young woman who is imprisoned for seven years on account of a “five-dollar” robbery. While in prison, she gets pregnant by a jailer (Beau Bridges) and must fight to keep her child.
After crossing the border illegally for work, Miguel (Michael Peña), a hard-working father and devoted husband, finds himself wrongfully accused of murdering a former sheriff’s wife (Madigan). After learning of his imprisonment, Miguel’s pregnant wife (Eva Longoria) tries to come to his aid and lands in the hands of corrupt coyotes who hold her for ransom. Dissatisfied with the police department’s investigation, the former sheriff (Ed Harris) tries to uncover the truth about his wife’s death and discovers disturbing evidence that will destroy one family’s future, or tear another’s apart.
(L to R) Ike Barinholtz and Amy Madigan in ‘The Hunt’. Photo: Universal Pictures.
Twelve strangers wake up in a clearing. They don’t know where they are—or how they got there. In the shadow of a dark internet conspiracy theory, ruthless elitists gather at a remote location to hunt humans for sport. But their master plan is about to be derailed when one of the hunted (Betty Gilpin) turns the tables on her pursuers.
A small-town Oregon teacher (Keri Russell) and her brother (Jesse Plemons), the local sheriff, discover a young student (Jeremy T. Thomas) is harbouring a dangerous secret that could have frightening consequences.
In August of 1949, Life Magazine ran a banner headline that begged the question: “Jackson Pollock: Is he the greatest living painter in the United States?” The film is a look back into the life of an extraordinary man, a man who has fittingly been called “an artist dedicated to concealment, a celebrity who nobody knew.” As he struggled with self-doubt, engaging in a lonely tug-of-war between needing to express himself and wanting to shut the world out, Pollock (Ed Harris) began a downward spiral.
In 1935 rural Texas, recently widowed Edna Spaulding (Sally Field) struggles to survive with two small children, a farm to run, and very little money in the bank – not to mention a deadly tornado and the unwelcome presence of the Ku Klux Klan. Edna is aided by her beautician sister, Margaret (Lindsay Crouse); a blind boarder, Mr. Will (John Malkovich); and a would-be thief, Moze (Danny Glover), who decides to teach Edna how to plant and harvest cotton.
When 4 year old Amanda McCready (Madeline O’Brien) disappears from her home and the police make little headway in solving the case, the girl’s aunt, Beatrice McCready (Madigan) hires two private detectives, Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck) and Angie Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan). The detectives freely admit that they have little experience with this type of case, but the family wants them for two reasons—they’re not cops and they know the tough neighborhood in which they all live.
(L to R) Gene Hackman, Ann-Margret, Ellen Burstyn, Amy Madigan, Ally Sheedy and Brian Dennehy in ‘Twice in a Lifetime’. Photo: Bud Yorkin Productions.
A middle-aged steelworker (Gene Hackman) is content with his job and his family, but feels that something is missing in his life. On his 50th birthday, he stops in at a local bar for a drink to celebrate. He finds himself attracted to the young, very sexy barmaid (Ann-Margret)–and, to his surprise, he finds that she is also very attracted to him.
Raven Shaddock (William Dafoe) and his gang of merciless biker friends kidnap rock singer Ellen Aim (Diane Lane). Ellen’s former lover, soldier-for-hire Tom Cody (Michael Paré), happens to be passing through town on a visit. In an attempt to save his star act, Ellen’s manager (Rick Moranis) hires Tom to rescue her. Along with a former soldier (Madigan), they battle through dangerous cityscapes, determined to get Ellen back.
Buck Russell (John Candy), a lovable but slovenly bachelor, suddenly becomes the temporary caretaker of his nephew and nieces (Macaulay Culkin and Gaby Hoffmann) after a family emergency. His freewheeling attitude soon causes tension with his older niece Tia (Jean Louisa Kelly), loyal girlfriend Chanice (Madigan) and just about everyone else who crosses his path.
Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) is an Iowa farmer who hears a mysterious voice telling him to turn his cornfield into a baseball diamond. He does, but the voice’s directions don’t stop — even after the spirits of deceased ballplayers turn up to play.
When all but one child from the same class mysteriously vanish on the same night at exactly the same time, a community is left questioning who or what is behind their disappearance.
But there was also the usual dull presenter banter, some truly rude moments of worthy winners played off (the ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ songwriting team even had the lights switched off on them, for which O’Brien apologized) and awkward insertions of politics, no matter how important the cause.
Overseeing the Oscars for the second time, comedian, writer and former late night host O’Brien proved he has what it takes to do this job.
His opening skit, dressed as Amy Madigan’s Aunt Gladys from ‘Weapons,’ chased through different other Oscar nominated movies by a bunch of kids, was a winner.
And if his opening monologue veered between pointed political jabs and some softballs that drew muted responses, it was still superior to other recent efforts. He was even able to smoothly deal with technical issues that plagued the ceremony, such as sound problems and cutting back to him unexpectedly.
Cementing its 2025 success, Warner Bros. enjoyed plenty of awards love this year, as Paul Thomas Anderson finally got his Oscar (six, in fact) for ‘One Battle After Another’ and ‘Sinners’ also took home plenty of trophies.
Talking of ‘Sinners’, Michael B. Jordan, whose Actor in a Leading Role ascension over waning prior favorite Timothée Chalamet (his ‘Marty Supreme’ went home empty handed) ended with Jordan on stage thanking those who had blazed a trail before him.
Elsewhere, ‘The Secret Agent’ sadly landed zero awards, but Netflix had a very good night, as ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ won two awards and ‘Frankenstein’ three, with the streaming service behind a variety of other triumphs.
Having actors –– particularly those with a film to promote or remember –– hand out awards has often led to some leaden banter, and this year was no exception. Even the star power of Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans couldn’t bring a lame bit to life, while one featuring Sigourney Weaver, Pedro Pascal and Grogu (pimping the upcoming ‘Star Wars’ movie) only really worked because of Weaver’s commitment (“Get away from him, you bitch!” she growled at nominee Kate Hudson, who had been cosying up to the critter in the audience).
Anna Wintour might not be everyone’s first choice for a co-presenter, but there she was, alongside ‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’s Anne Hathaway in a moment that felt like Disney selling the sequel more than looking to celebrate the Costume Design or Hair and Makeup categories.
There was more mixed luck with reunions –– the ‘Bridesmaids’ cast brought their moment to life with true comic power while Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman just looked award handing out Best Picture and recalling ‘Moulin Rouge!’.
Three big things happened last night in terms of history. There was the first tie in 14 years (only the seventh in Oscar history) as ‘The Singers’ and ‘Two People Exchanging Saliva’ shared the Live-Action Short Film honors.
‘Sinners’ cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw became the first woman (and woman of color) to win her category, while the first ever Casting award was handed to ‘One Battle’s Cassandra Kulukundis. Long-favoured Actress winner Jessie Buckley, meanwhile, became the first Irish woman to take home her category for her work in ‘Hamnet’.
The annual remembrance for those in the industry was well handled and featured three major spotlights. First, Billy Crystal gave a moving speech about friend and collaborator Rob Reiner (who was murdered in his home last year alongside his wife, Michele), and was then joined by other cast members of Reiner movies.
Rachel McAdams took the stage to pay tribute to the likes of Diane Keaton and Catherine O’Hara, and then the big finish –– Barbra Streisand arrived to memorialize her ‘The Way we Were’ co-star and cinema icon Robert Redford, before singing for the first time in public (she had all but stopped due to stage fright issues and frustration) in years for a memorable finale to the segment.
‘One Battle After Another’ was the biggest winner of the night, with Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest taking Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Supporting Actor (for no-show Sean Penn), Editing and, handed out for the first time this year, Casting.
‘Sinners’ was also successful, as Michael B. Jordan nabbed the top male acting award out from ‘Marty Supreme’s Timothée Chalamet (who had been the favorite for a while, but whose momentum had slowed of late), while its director Ryan Coogler scored Adapted Screenplay, composer Ludwig Göransson landed Best Original Score and Cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw made more history as the first woman to win her category at the Oscars.
Elsewhere, ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ continued its successful run with two awards (Animated Feature and Original Song for “Golden”), while ‘Weapons’Amy Madigan got a rapturous reception as she took Supporting Actress for her creepy, wild turn as Aunt Gladys.
While ‘One Battle After Another’ has been the presumed winner the entire awards season, having taken home Best Picture at every major award show including Critics Choice, Golden Globes, and BAFTA, ‘Sinners’ won Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture at the Actor Awards, building some momentum for the Ryan Coogler helmed film.
It’s also been assumed that Paul Thomas Anderson would finally receive Best Director from the Oscars, especially after winning Outstanding Directorial Achievement from the DGA, but don’t count out a surprise win from Coogler just yet.
Speaking of ‘Sinners’, although Timothée Chalamet won Best Actor for ‘Marty Supreme’ from Critic’s Choice and the Golden Globes, he failed to win at BAFTA, and lost to Michael B Jordan at the Actors Awards, which signals trouble for Chalamet’s Oscar run.
On the other hand, ‘Hamnet’s Jessie Buckley has had virtually no competition in her race to the Best Actress Oscar and after winning every other major award, I don’t think anything can stop her from taking home gold on Oscar night.
Best Supporting Actress seems like a two-way race between Golden Globe winner Teyana Taylor for ‘One Battle’ and Actor Awards winner Amy Madigan for ‘Weapons‘, however, ‘Sinners’ Wunmi Mosaku is still in the mix.
Finally, the Best Supporting Actor category is fairly wide open, with BAFTA and Actor Awards winner Sean Penn currently the frontrunner fighting off Golden Globe winner Stellan Skarsgård for ‘Sentimental Value’. But the Oscars love a surprise, so if ‘Sinners’ has a big night, Delroy Lindo could end up having a surprise win.
Below are our predictions for who will win Oscars on Sunday at the 98th Academy Awards. We are only breaking down our predictions for the six major categories, Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Supporting Actress.
Leonardo Di Caprio as Bob Ferguson in ‘One Battle After Another.’ A Warner Bros. Pictures Release. Photo Credit: Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures.
Well, now we finally have a real race!
Since the start of this awards season it has seemed preordained that director Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘One Battle After Another’ would finally earn the filmmaker a long overdue win for Best Picture. The film has won almost every precursor needed to be the frontrunner, including wins at Critics Choice, Golden Globes, BAFTA, and the all important Producers Guild of America Awards.
However, don’t count ‘Sinners’ out just yet! After grabbing an Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture win at the Actor Awards, as well as Michael B. Jordan’s win for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role, the vampire epic now has real momentum.
It also did better at the box office than ‘One Battle’, which sometimes but not always is a factor. But keep in mind that Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture at the Actor Awards is basically a recognition of ensemble acting and not necessarily a film award. And while ‘One Battle’ was also in that category, I don’t buy into the narrative that ‘Sinners’ “beat” ‘One Battle’ for Best Picture at SAG.
It now seems like we have a two-way race but ‘Hamnet’ is still in the mix after winning a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture – Drama, and remember it was produced by Oscar favorite Steven Spielberg.
Keep in mind that the Academy uses a preferential ballot for Best Picture, meaning the winner isn’t simply the film with the most No. 1 votes. Instead, voters rank the nominees, and if no film receives more than 50% of the first-place votes, the movie with the fewest No. 1 votes is eliminated and its ballots are redistributed to the next highest-ranked film on those ballots. That process continues until one film crosses the 50% threshold. In other words, it’s not just about passion at the top — it’s about broad support.
The real question isn’t only who voters rank No. 1, but which film consistently appears in the No. 2 and No. 3 spots and can accumulate support as other contenders fall away. My guess is that many voters may not rank ‘Sinners’ first, but could place it second or third, giving it a plausible path in later rounds. Still, the safer bet remains ‘One Battle’, which feels more likely to build the majority coalition needed to win.
(L to R) Leonardo Di Caprio and Director/Writer/Producer Paul Thomas Anderson on the set of ‘One Battle After Another.’ A Warner Bros. Pictures Release. Photo Credit: Merrick Morton.
Just like the Best Picture race, since the start of this current awards season it has seemed like this was “Paul Thomas Anderson’s Year”, and that the ‘Boogie Nights’ director would finally win his long-awaited Best Director Oscar. With directorial wins at every other award show including Critics Choice, Golden Globes, BAFTA, and the all important Directors Guild Awards, it does look like Anderson will finally win Best Director at the Oscars.
But what about Ryan Coogler? While he has yet to win a director’s award this season, he is definitely Anderson’s biggest competition, especially now that the film is surging late. Typically, Best Picture and Best Director go hand in hand, but not always, and much like when Damien Chazelle won best director for ‘La La Land‘ but ‘Moonlight‘ went on to win Best Picture, we could see a similar spilt this year. But if we do, I think it is more likely that Anderson still wins Best Director, and the surprise win comes for ‘Sinners’ in Best Picture.
Let’s be honest, the Academy usually don’t get it right! They could be thinking that Coogler will return with another film in the near future, and want to finally reward Anderson now for ‘One Battle’ as well as his overall career, assuming that Coogler’s time will come sooner than later. While I would love to see an upset and have Coogler win, I would also like to see the Academy finally reward Anderson for his body of work, which I think will be the final result on Oscar night.
This is the race to really keep an eye on! The Oscars love a surprise, and if there is going to be a big surprise on Oscar night, it will be in this category.
Timothée Chalamet began the awards season with wins from Critics Choice and Golden Globes, making it look like he was a lock for a Best Actor win at the Oscars. But, when he lost the BAFTA to Robert Aramayo for ‘I Swear‘, who is not even in the Oscar race, it left the young actor’s Oscar chances vulnerable.
That brings us to Michael B. Jordan, who in my opinion gave the best performance of the year, and recently beat Chalamet at the all important Actor Awards. Historically, one Actor Award win is not enough to ensure an Oscar win, as demonstrated by Chalamet last year when he won Best Actor from SAG for ‘A Complete Unknown‘ but then lost the Oscar race to Adrien Brody for ‘The Brutalist‘. But Jordan has the surging momentum of ‘Sinners’ behind him and a lot of goodwill from Academy voters, while Chalamet seems to be cooling off and has fueled criticism for his unusual Oscar campaign style and recent comments on “ballet and opera.”
There is also a theory that Chalamet is really being rewarded for his performance last year in ‘A Complete Unknown’, when he should have won, and not his performance this year in ‘Marty Supreme’. The Academy tends to do that and often tries to make up for their past mistakes. For example, after not nominating Paul Giamatti for ‘Sideways‘, which he should have been nominated for, the following year he was nominated for ‘Cinderella Man‘. So, if Chalamet does win, it will be for playing Bob Dylan and not for playing Marty Mauser!
Also working against Chalamet is the fact that the Academy typically does not give young actors the Best Actor trophy. They love giving the Best Actress award to young actresses, examples including Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Lawrence, Emma Stone, and recently Mikey Madison. But, if Chalamet were to win, he would be just a few months shy of breaking Adrien Brody’s record as the youngest Best Actor recipient ever for his first win in ‘The Pianist‘. Jordan is just reaching his prime as an actor, and with a long body of work to his credit, voters could see him as a strong alternative, especially with his recent win and the ‘Sinners’ surging.
While Chalamet is statistically the frontrunner, I feel like there will be a big surprise on Oscar night and I’m betting on Jordan for the win.
There really is not much to say here. If there is any locked category this year, it is this one.
‘Hamnet’s Jessie Buckley is one win away from a “perfect award season’. After winning Best Actress at Critics Choice, Golden Globes, BAFTA, and the Actor Awards, she is almost guaranteed a win on Oscar night.
Does she have any competition? A little, but not much. Rose Byrne won a Golden Globe for ‘If I Had Legs I’d Kick You‘, but that’s because the Globes split the Best Actress race into two different categories, Drama and Musical or Comedy. So, Byrne did not compete in the same category as Buckley. When she has, she has lost to the ‘Hamnet’ star, and I see no reason that will not continue to take place.
Kate Hudson has been campaigning hard, but this is the only nomination ‘Song Sung Blue‘ received, and I don’t think that is enough to compete with Buckley and ‘Hamnet’, which received 8 overall nominations. ‘Sentimental Value’ does not seem to have the same momentum it did earlier in the season, leaving actress Renate Reinsve without a real path to the gold. And with two Oscars already on her shelf, Emma Stone’s nomination was more or less given just to round out the five nominees, not unlike some of Meryl Streep‘s past nominations.
The safe money is clearly on Jessie Buckley to win Best Actress, and at this point it would take a miracle for anyone else to beat her and win.
Delroy Lindo at the New York Premiere of ‘Sinners’. Photo: Warner Bros.
This is another very interesting category and one to keep an eye on for big surprises on Oscar night!
With no real frontrunner, Best Supporting Actor is wide-open and really anybody’s for the taking.
The season began with Benicio del Toro positioned as the frontrunner for ‘One Battle’, but the actor has yet to win for that performance, putting his chances of winning the Oscar in doubt.
His co-star, Sean Penn, could be considered a slight frontrunner after winning BAFTA and the Actor Award, but with two Oscars already to his name, I’m not sure the Academy is ready to hand him his third just yet. I also think that having both actors from ‘One Battle’ in the same category will split the vote, leaving them both empty handed on Oscar night.
Jacob Elordi received a surprise win for ‘Frankenstein‘ at the Critics Choice Awards, but the young actor was unable to capitalize on it and has yet to win a second award.
Veteran actor Stellan Skarsgård won the Golden Globe, but also was not able to capitalize with a second win, and with ‘Sentimental Value’s momentum cooling off, I’m not sure it will be enough to earn him the trophy.
Enter Delroy Lindo. Keep in mind that this is his first nomination this entire awards season, meaning that he has not had the opportunity to compete with his fellow nominees yet. It’s not unheard of for an actor to suddenly enter the Oscar race and win. Marcia Gay Harden successfully pulled that off when she won Best Supporting Actress for ‘Pollock‘ over Kate Hudson, the presumed frontrunner for ‘Almost Famous‘.
With ‘Sinners’ surging, Michael B. Jordan’s possible win, no real front runner in this category, and Lindo’s overall likability in the industry, I do think that he will pull off the win on Oscar night.
While its not as wide-open as Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress is really between two, maybe three actresses at this point.
Let’s just get this out of the way. Much like the two ‘One Battle’ actors in the Supporting Male category, I think ‘Sentimental Value’s Elle Fanning and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas will cancel each other out. Neither has won any major award this season, and with the film’s lack of momentum, I doubt either actress has a real shot to win.
While Wunmi Mosaku did win BAFTA, I’m not sure that will be enough to win an Oscar. ‘Sinners’ popularity could give her a boost, and if Lindo and Jordan fail to win, this could be where ‘Sinners’ gets an acting award. But since I do think Jordan and Lindo will be triumphant, I’m thinking this award will be given to someone else.
Teyana Taylor won a Golden Globe, and her film is the frontrunner for Best Picture. It would be odd for ‘One Battle’ to win Best Picture with no wins in the actor categories, so if it were to win an acting Oscar, it will be here. But Taylor has some real competition from veteran actress Amy Madigan.
The ‘Weapons’ actress began the season winning Critics Choice, but bounced around a bit before recently winning the all important Actor Award. That doesn’t make her the frontrunner, but puts her on par with Taylor. Working against Madigan is that she is ‘Weapons’ only nomination, but it’s not unheard of for an actor to win for a movie that received no other nominations. It happened when Kathy Bates won Best Actress for ‘Misery‘.
So while it’s a tight race, I think that Madigan’s long career and versatile body of work will in the end give her an edge over Taylor.
(L to R) Leonardo Di Caprio and Director/Writer/Producer Paul Thomas Anderson on the set of ‘One Battle After Another.’ A Warner Bros. Pictures Release. Photo Credit: Merrick Morton.
It will start on January 22nd when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announce the Oscar nominees, with the 98th Oscars Ceremony scheduled for March 15th.
At this point, we do have a confirmed frontrunner in the Best Picture race with ‘One Battle After Another‘, but don’t count out ‘Hamnet‘ or ‘Sinners‘ just yet.
In the Best Actor race, Timothée Chalamet seems to be the frontrunner, but will have some competition from Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael B. Jordan and especially Wagner Moura, who recently won a Golden Globe. However, the academy might as well hand the Best Actress Oscar to Jessie Buckley right now, as she is about as solid a lock to win as you can have.
The Academy Awards will air live March 15th on ABC and Hulu.
Moviefone is making its Oscar nomination predictions for the major categories including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress, ahead of the nominee announcements on January 22nd.
(L to R) Leonardo Di Caprio and Director/Writer/Producer Paul Thomas Anderson on the set of ‘One Battle After Another.’ A Warner Bros. Pictures Release. Photo Credit: Merrick Morton.
Chelsea Handler hosts the 31st Annual Critics Choice Awards. Photo: CCA.
Preview:
Winners of the 31st Critics Choice Awards included ‘One Battle After Another’ and ‘Hamnet.’
‘Frankenstein’ and ‘Sinners’ also took home awards.
The ceremony was hosted by Chelsea Handler.
Though there were few surprises among the big winners at this year’s Critics Choice Awards, where ‘One Battle After Another’ took home a three big trophies (Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay), the ceremony was nevertheless still a lively, energetic affair, hosted once again by Chelsea Handler.
Following a monologue from Handler that took shots at Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav and paid loving tribute to Rob Reiner and Diane Keaton, it was on with the show.
(L to R) Leonardo Di Caprio and Director/Writer/Producer Paul Thomas Anderson on the set of ‘One Battle After Another.’ A Warner Bros. Pictures Release. Photo Credit: Merrick Morton.
Benicio del Toro as Sensei St. Carlos in ‘One Battle After Another.’ A Warner Bros. Pictures Release. Photo Credit: Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures
Paul Thomas Anderson – ‘One Battle After Another’ – WINNER
We’ll admit we weren’t major fans of writer-director Zach Cregger’s feature debut, ‘Barbarian.’ While we appreciated its opening act and the film’s overall unpredictability, we were left dissatisfied by some uneven acting and a sense that it was two stories stapled together. Cregger’s second feature, ‘Weapons,’ is a whole different scenario. Once again Cregger experiments with narrative structure and tonal shifts, and while he occasionally loses his balance, he brings his various plot strands and character arcs together in a much more cohesive fashion while maintaining a better mix of dread and macabre humor.
This makes ‘Weapons’ one of the best horror outings of 2025 to date – not too shabby in a year that’s already seen the release of excellent genre fare like ‘Sinners’ and ‘Together.’ ‘Weapons’ may not have as much of the social commentary of those films, but it’s a frightening, gripping tale that still – in the tradition of authors like Stephen King – has something to say about small town paranoia and the mistreatment of children.
If you’ve seen any of the trailers for ‘Weapons,’ you know the premise: one night at exactly 2:17 a.m., 17 children from a third-grade class in the town of Maybrook all wake up in their homes and run off into the night, never to be seen again. A month later, law enforcement, school officials, and parents – led by the grief-stricken Archer Graff (Josh Brolin) — have no clues about what happened; only one child from the class, Alex (Cary Christopher), remains, while the town’s suspicions fall mainly on the class teacher, Justine Gandy (Julia Garner).
All that essentially happens in the first 10 minutes of the movie, with some of it narrated by a child who hints at the bizarre nature of the events to follow. And bizarre they are: ‘Weapons’ is the kind of movie that it’s better to see with as little foreknowledge as possible about what’s to come, and the film takes off in some unexpected directions from its initial setup before coming full circle.
Cregger relates this through a series of interlocking stories for each of his main characters – including Justine, Archer, a town cop and former lover of Justine’s named Paul (Alden Ehrenreich), a local homeless junkie named James (Austin Abrams), school principal Marcus (Benedict Wong), and Alex himself. Every story overlaps to some degree with the others, although told from the point of view of whatever character it’s focused on, and they all dovetail in the film’s third act. While this creates a bit of a repetitive rhythm as the movie goes on, each character’s tale varies enough from the others and reveals a bit more each time of the mystery at the movie’s center, keeping one transfixed as the horrific picture becomes clearer.
Cregger handles this looping structure extremely well for the most part, while also balancing a nicely expanding sense of dread and terror with moments of truly morbid humor that spring organically from the increasingly ghoulish situations he concocts. That tightrope act goes a little off the rails in the third act, as the violence escalates rapidly and some of the finale veers a touch too far into unintentionally comedic terrain – but not enough to dilute what’s come before. There are also a few plot holes along the way if one looks hard enough – but again, not enough to stop this from being an absorbing, scary trip.
Some of the film’s key sequences provide genuinely terrifying payoffs to the atmosphere that Cregger patiently builds in slow-burn fashion, aided by Larkin Seiple’s moody cinematography and an excellent, wide-ranging score by Ryan and Hays Holladay as well as Cregger himself. For most of its 128 minutes, ‘Weapons’ is a tightly-woven tapestry of horror that doesn’t over-explain itself and retains a singular filmmaking vision.
‘Weapons’ is the definition of an ensemble piece, with excellent performances from all involved. Julia Garner seems much more confident and well-cast here than she was in her previous horror outing, ‘Wolf Man,’ as Justine, the teacher with just enough of a murky past that her clear love for her students is used as a – dare we say – weapon against her. Josh Brolin is also reliably outstanding as Archer, the actor using the innate tension between his gruff, tough guy façade and empathetic interior to create a fundamentally decent human being who is pushed to his limit by the loss of his son.
The underrated Alden Ehrenreich uses his chameleonic skills well as the equally vulnerable Paul, while Austin Abrams and Benedict Wong offer some of the film’s more humorous moments. And Cary Christopher is heartbreaking as Alex, the little boy suddenly left alone by nearly everyone in his life. Each of these characters gets more development than is often usual in horror films, which only adds to the viewer’s investment when all are placed in peril. And there’s one other performance about which we’ll say little – except that it’s thoroughly chilling.
While the horror genre itself is not having as dependable a year as usual at the box office (sorry, Blumhouse), Warner Bros. Pictures is bucking that trend: following the surprising ‘Final Destination Bloodlines’ and the transcendent ‘Sinners,’ this is the studio’s third creatively successful fright fest in a row.
What makes it even more gratifying is that this is a wholly original and personal piece. The menace at the heart of ‘Weapons’ is one that other films have touched on before, but not quite in a scenario and setting like this. In that sense, ‘Weapons’ and ‘Barbarian’ do share common ground – the idea that evil can spring from the most unexpected places at random moments, albeit after festering out of sight for years. It’s a worldview and an approach that Zach Cregger is, pardon the expression, weaponizing to create some of the most interesting work in the genre right now.
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What is the plot of ‘Weapons’?
One night, all but one child from Justine Gandy’s (Julia Garner) classroom mysteriously run off into the night. Justine and the rest of the community are left questioning who – or what – is behind the children’s disappearance.
