Movie Review: One Battle After Another (2025)

Plugging away at what's shaping up to be a busy fall movie season, it's time to review the latest from Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another!

Based on the 1990 Thomas Pynchon novel Vineland, PTA's tenth film stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro, Teyana Taylor and newcomer Chase Infiniti.  Leo and Teyana are Pat Calhoun and Perfidia Beverly Hills, members of a far-left revolutionary group called the French 75, who run rescue operations for incarcerated undocumented immigrants, rob banks, and conduct after-hours bombings of financial and political offices.  The couple has a child together but Perfidia is arrested during a botched bank heist, and Pat and their daughter Charlene are forced to go into hiding.  Sixteen years later their past catches up with them when a military squad begins hunting down the remaining French 75 members.

I won't divulge more plot than that, as the trailer leaves vague all but what I mentioned above; this film is better experienced without knowing much.  Suffice to say PTA has loosely adapted this Reagan-era story for the 2020s and created a powderkeg of a film, a blend of piano-wire-taut suspense, absurdist comedy, and biting political satire.  

AEW All Out 2025 Review: Stat Is the New Champ, Kyle Is In Fact Ready...

AEW All Out 2025 is in the books and as expected it was a helluva show, with a slew of good-to-great matches, a ton of variety, some surprise returns, and an epic main event that cemented its challenger as a new top star.

Despite WWE's best efforts to cockblock AEW again, All Out was a creative and commercial success, pulling in around 13,000 live fans for a $1 million-plus gate, and apparently drawing a strong PPV buyrate (exact numbers aren't in yet but at the post-show media scrum Tony Khan made it clear he was happy with the early metrics).  Last year's 105k is the number to beat, as it would mark the first time since 2021 that three consecutive AEW PPVs outdrew their counterparts from the previous year.

The show opened with the much-hyped Adam Copeland-Christian Cage homecoming, as the two longtime friends teamed up to face FTR.  The match was a good solid tag bout with a lot of false finishes, wherein Cope paid tribute to John Cena with a Five Knuckle Shuffle/AA combination.  Late in the match Cope hit a Killswitch on one FTR member while Cage hit a spear on the other.  Stokely Hathaway pulled the referee out of the ring, which prompted the surprise involvement of Beth Phoenix Copeland.  Beth speared Hathaway and carried him to the back.  Cope kicked out of a spike piledriver and Shatter Machine before hitting a very sudden spear (too sudden I thought) to win the match.  Beth came back down to celebrate but Nick Wayne and Kip Sabian ran down and laid out Cage before handcuffing Cope to the ropes.  Beth, knowing she was outnumbered, kissed Cope before attacking FTR, but they got her up for a spike piledriver and ran away.  Very good match, excellent angle afterward.  This feud is clearly not over.  ***3/4

AEW All Out 2025 Preview & Predictions

The other half of this Saturday's wrestling PPV double-shot is AEW's All Out!  While there are arguments to be made both ways about Tony Khan's decision to move this show to the afternoon and avoid WWE's cockblock, I'd say it was overall the right move.  Had WWE tried to counterprogram a lineup as big as All In with a main roster show, that's an easier gamble to take.  But All Out, while a loaded show in terms of wrestling quality, doesn't have the company's biggest possible marquee bouts (not to mention Will Ospreay, Swerve Strickland and Kenny Omega are all on the shelf).  Still, as I said in my Wrestlepalooza picks, I think All Out would've drawn around 100k buys even head-to-head.  With the 3pm start time I'll predict 120k.  But we'll see....

Anyway, this show has several potential Match of the Night candidates, perhaps too many multi-man bouts, and a big Toronto reunion, plus they're building for the future by putting 26-year-old Kyle Fletcher in the main event.  Let's take a look.....

The Hurt Syndicate vs. Ricochet & Gates of Agony

Lashley, Benjamin and MVP have fully turned babyface and are now feuding with Ric's crew.  The two singles matches from this feud featured on the last couple Dynamites have been very good and amazingly Lashley actually sold for Toa Liona!  I could see MVP eating the pin here but back-to-back PPV losses for THS seems unlikely.

Pick: The Hurt Syndicate

WWE Wrestlepalooza 2025 Preview & Predictions

It's a head-to-head (sorta) weekend in the wrestling business on Saturday, with both WWE and AEW putting on PPV events.  Of course AEW had this date booked months in advance and WWE decided to try and cockblock them because their product doesn't have the momentum it had 18 months ago.  Thus they threw together this little number out of nowhere and even half-assedly resurrected the name Wrestlepalooza from a now-defunct promotion they bought during the first year of the Dubya administration.  Hey guys?  The whole "palooza" thing isn't relevant anymore.  Hasn't been in decades.  'Course if you've taken a look at this lineup it does feel a bit like a late 90s WCW show.  

This will be the first WWE PPV broadcast via ESPN+ and supposedly if you have cable or YouTubeTV you get to watch it for free, but apparently that part hasn't been sorted out yet.  I can't wait to hear about all the pissed-off cable viewers who either didn't get to see it or had to pay the thirty bucks.  For the record I will not be going back to spending $30 to watch a WWE PPV.  Not now, not ever.  There are some potentially good matches on this card but the main event isn't one of them.  More on that in a bit...

Side note: Zero black wrestlers on this show.

Women's World Championship: IYO Sky vs. Stephanie Vaquer

Welp, that whole Naomi push went up in smoke in a big hurry, didn't it?  Naomi announced a few weeks ago that she's pregnant, so they had to cancel her scheduled match with Stephanie and vacate the title.  This should easily be the best thing on this show, like by a lot.  Both of these women are far too talented to wrestle for a promotion that doesn't value good wrestling.

Pick: I think Steph wins her first main roster gold, and then she probably won't be seen again on PPV until the Rumble.  Nor will IYO.

Top Ten (Eleven) Things: Spinal Tap Songs

Welcome to the only edition of Top Ten Things that goes to eleven!  Today we're ranking the songs of everyone's favorite fictional heavy metal band, Spinal Tap!

Made famous of course by the 1984 Rob Reiner "mockumentary," Spinal Tap's three core members are David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean), Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), and Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer).  The largely improvisational masterpiece This is Spinal Tap lampooned the world of hard rock n' roll, taking no comedic prisoners and delivering some of the all-time great metal-related, "too close to home" comedy bits.  Who can forget Nigel's wireless unit picking up the control tower at the Air Force base?  Or Derek setting off the airport metal detector with the foil-wrapped cucumber stuffed down his pants?  Or undoubtedly the most famous bit, Nigel's custom Marshall head whose dials all go to 11?  The film is an absolutely hysterical satire of the rock industry, featuring totally authentic performances from the entire cast and a flawless script.  It's simply one of the most quotable films ever made.

But what sets This is Spinal Tap apart from other fake documentaries is the legitimacy of the musicians.  McKean, Guest, Shearer, and the rest of the band played their own instruments, and along with Rob Reiner, wrote all the songs.  And despite the lyrics being mostly tongue-in-cheek (and brilliantly funny), this band put out some pretty great hard rock tunes, including a full album's worth featured in the film, and a follow-up eight years later (which in my opinion is the better of the two records).  McKean and company are all great comedic actors but I'll be damned if they aren't accomplished rock n' rollers too.

So here are the best songs ever recorded by England's loudest band.......This list goes to eleven.... 

11. Christmas With the Devil

A title that dates back to the production of the film, "Christmas With the Devil" is exactly the type of song its moniker implies; a Satanic Christmas carol complete with jingle bell accompaniment and morbidly descriptive lyrics.  "The elves are dressed in leather and the angels are in chains," intones David to kick off this Sabbath-esque dirge.  Featured on the second album Break Like the Wind, this might be the most purely "metal" sounding of all their tracks.  Notice also the word "Hallelujah" sung backwards in the bridge.  Hilarious.

10. Rainy Day Sun

Another song from BLTW, "Rainy Day Sun" is meant to be one of the band's late 60s recordings, from when Spinal Tap were a psychedelic hippie band.  With heavy Beatles influences including some backtracked vocals and snaky string accompaniment, this song captures the spirit of the era, lending some tangible depth to the band's fictional backstory.

9. Just Begin Again

A power ballad duet from BLTW, "Just Begin Again" features a guest appearance by Cher and makes use of deliberately trite love song lyrics like "Life is just a meal/And you never say when," and "Life is just a show/Go reload your gun."  And despite the silliness of the words, this song is actually poignant and powerful, led by two strong vocal performances.

8. Rock n' Roll Creation

In the context of the film this tune is from the "pretentious, ponderous collection of religious rock psalms" known as The Gospel According to Spinal Tap.  Melding biblical elements with hard rock tropes, "RNR Creation" has one of the more evil-sounding main riffs in the catalog, mixed with simple but memorable vocal harmonies.  This song was featured in the unforgettable movie scene where Derek gets trapped in his "body snatcher" pod for the duration of the tune.

Movie Review: Spinal Tap II - The End Continues (2025)

Taking a break from reviewing films of Oscars past to review a current film in theaters now!

After forty-one long years the follow-up to the iconic rockumentary This Is Spinal Tap has finally dropped, in the form of Spinal Tap II: The End Continues!  Documentarian Marty DiBergi (Rob Reiner) is back to catch us all up on what's been happening with our favorite fictional heavy metal band.  Not seen together in public since their Back From the Dead tour in 2009, the members of Spinal Tap have seemingly had a falling out and gone their very separate ways.  

We learn Nigel Tufnil (Christopher Guest) now runs a Northern England cheese and guitar shop, whose store policy includes trading used guitars for fine cheeses, and vice versa.  He's finally found love in Moira (Nina Conti), a customer-turned-co-owner.  On the other side of the Atlantic, David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean) lives alone in Morro Bay, California (His former partner Jeanine left him years ago for a surprising new career), and now composes music for podcasts and telephone on-hold lines.  Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer) runs a London glue museum, having chosen this line of work because he's always seen himself as "the glue" that held Spinal Tap together.

Oscar Film Journal: Broadway Melody of 1936 (1935)

And now it's time for yet another Oscar Film Journal entry, here at Enuffa.com!

We're time-traveling back to the 1930s again, for what I guess could be considered the first pseudo-sequel to earn a Best Picture nomination, Broadway Melody of 1936.  Narratively unrelated to the original 1929 Broadway Melody, and actually released in September of 1935 (not sure why it was called 1936 then), this follow-up is another song and dance vehicle held together by a shoestring plot.  

Gossip columnist Bert Keeler (Jack Benny) is ordered by his editor to find an eye-catching story and he stumbles onto a juicy piece about Broadway producer Bob Gordon (Robert Taylor) and wealthy socialite Lillian Brent (June Knight), who's agreed to finance Gordon's latest play.  Gordon's high school sweetheart Irene Foster (Eleanor Powell) arrives in town hoping to land a part in the show, but Bob at first doesn't even recognize her and later tells her to go back to Albany and avoid getting mixed up in the Broadway racket.  Gordon and Keeler develop a heated feud over Keeler's gossip articles (complete with multiple physical altercations), so Keeler tries to sabotage the play by talking Bob into signing a French dancer (who in actuality doesn't exist).  When Irene catches wind of this plot she decides to take up the persona of the Frenchwoman to get Bob's attention.  It's a very complicated case, lotta ins, lotta outs, lotta what-have-yous....

Oscar Film Journal: MASH (1970)

Welcome to another Oscar Film Journal entry, here at Enuffa.com!

Alright, I'm almost done with the nominees for 1970, having now seen four out of the five (Only Love Story remains, god help me).  Number four is the wartime comedy MASH, directed by Robert Altman and starring Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Tom Skerritt, Robert Duvall, and Sally Kellerman.  Based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Richard Hooker, MASH follows the day-in-the-life screwball misadventures of two prodigious military surgeons during the Korean War, Captains "Hawkeye" Pierce and "Trapper John" McIntyre.  Both doctors and their gaggle of debaucherous colleagues are virulent anti-authority mischief-makers/party animals, but they get away with repeated insubordination, hazing, pranks and scams due to their unrivaled skill in the operating room, and the inherent chaos of being stationed near the front line.  This anarchic romp paved the way for cinematic progeny such as Stripes and Animal House, but also seems influenced by the work of The Marx Brothers (There's even a throwaway reference to Groucho's game show You Bet Your Life).  And of course it was the inspiration for the landmark TV series.

Top Ten Things: Billy Joel Songs

Welcome to another song-related Top Ten Things, here at Enuffa.com!

I recently watched And So It Goes, the new HBO documentary on the life and career of the legendary Billy Joel!  So why not do a list of his greatest compositions?

I first became aware of Billy Joel at age seven or eight, around the time of An Innocent Man, Joel's 1983 homage to the music of the 1950s and 60s, with which he had grown up.  Each song is a pastiche of a particular artist or style from that era, and even as a young boy Joel's songs immediately stood out from other early 80s radio fare.  Though I couldn't have put it into words at the time, I was drawn in right away by Joel's relatable, working-class approach to songwriting; these were instantly memorable tunes with universal lyrical themes and more often than not a rock-solid groove (Billy's longtime drummer Liberty Devitto was a monster behind the kit).  Over my subsequent childhood and adolescent years I was exposed to many more of Billy's hits, and by the time his final pop album came out in 1993 he'd racked up no fewer than 25 timeless radio standards, no small feat for a 12-album career.

Joel's discography has covered so many genres and influences (probably the most prevalent of which is The Beatles; Joel has cited them as a major inspiration on many occasions and to this day incorporates a few of their songs into his live set), giving each album its own sound and feel, and demonstrating his consummate skill in crafting robust pop-rock songs that the radio simply adores.  His live performances over the years have been wildly energetic and entertaining, but he also shows genuine humility onstage and gives each of his backup musicians ample moments to shine.

Joel decided to stop making pop-rock albums at the age of 44, after River of Dreams, but his expansive catalog of evergreen songs continues to inspire and delight new generations.

Here is a list of his finest tunes....


HM: The Entertainer

Billy's satirical take on the cynicism of the music industry and the fickleness of its audience has a peppy, upbeat sound but lyrical content bordering on resentment, with lines like "It was a beautiful song, but it ran too long/If you're gonna have a hit, you gotta make it fit/So they cut it down to 3:05."  "The Entertainer" chronicled Billy's refusal to simply churn out homogenized product to stay atop the charts, and his desire to always push himself artistically.



HM: Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)

One of Joel's working-class anthems, "Movin' Out" explores the struggles of the New York 9-to-5 crowd, spending all their energy to achieve a higher status in life rather than attaining happiness.  In the end material wealth is not a substitute for inner contentment.  "If that's movin' up, then I'm movin' out."



HM: My Life

I first became aware of this song as the intro theme to the Tom Hanks/Peter Scolari sitcom Bosom Buddies, but its late 70s keyboard groove still gets the ol' toes tappin'.  "My Life" is an ode to individuality, doing things your own way regardless what others think.  Another easily relatable song from Mr. Joel.



HM: Goodnight Saigon

Joel's seven-minute opus from The Nylon Curtain is a tribute to the soldiers of Vietnam, its lyrics covering the details of what it was like for them, their sacrifice, their fears, their comraderie, rather than taking a stance on the war itself.  It is a poignant consideration of the Vietnam experience and a touching acknowledgement to all soldiers, living and dead.



HM: We Didn't Start the Fire

Maybe the ultimate guilty pleasure song, this iconic list song chronicling major news events throughout Joel's 40 years up to that point is undeniably catchy but also undeniably silly.  Joel himself has never been all that proud of it from a musical standpoint ("The melody is like a dentist's drill"), but it put him right back into heavy radio and MTV rotation after The Bridge's somewhat lackluster reception.  Also I can't hear this song anymore without thinking of this:

Okay, now for the Top 10...

Awesomely Shitty Movies: The Lost Boys

Welcome back to Enuffa.com for another edition of Awesomely Shitty Movies!  

Today we'll be examining the brazenly tawdry late-80s time capsule known as The Lost Boys.  Before the Twilight movies forever ruined the vampire genre Joel Schumacher gave us teenage vampire garbage we could really sink our teeth into.  Teeth, get it??  Cuz vampires like to bite people?  With their teeth? 

Buckle up and set the DeLorean for 1987, the heyday of such screen legends as Corey Haim, Corey Feldman (what's with all the Coreys??), Jason Patric, Jami Gertz, and the one teen heartthrob from this era whose career escaped more or less unscathed, Kiefer Sutherland.

Originally The Lost Boys was to be a Peter Pan-inspired film about pre-adolescent vampires, stemming from the idea that Peter could fly and never grew old (Kiefer's character was originally called Peter, while the protagonist brothers were Michael and John, later to be Michael and Sam).  However when Schumacher came on board he decided teenage characters would be much more marketable/sexier.

The resulting film is delightfully "late-80s," from the costumes, to the heavy metal-influenced fashion sense of the teenage characters, to the awesomely dated soundtrack, to the Central Coast, California setting.  It's a quintessential 80s summer movie.  And it's fantastically dumb.



The Awesome

The Cast

This movie's got a pretty great cast, all perfectly suited to their roles.  Corey Haim, while never ascending to the heights of great acting, was exactly right for the main character of Sam.  Sam is the audience's guide through the story, usually in way over his head and scared shitless the whole time.  Jason Patric as his older brother Michael is the character with the real arc (he goes from brooding, sullen pretty boy to brooding, sullen vampire), and he's the one whose relationship with the villains sets things in motion.  Dianne Wiest is excellent as always, as their mother Lucy.  Corey Feldman, whose childhood work was actually pretty underrated, is hilarious as the aspiring vampire killer Edgar Frog. 

Corey, Corey, and that other guy.

And of course the showstopper is Kiefer Sutherland as David, the leader of the vampire gang.  Sutherland was fresh off his breakout performance as teenage delinquent Ace Merrill in Stand By Me, and his performance here is similar, but with the volume turned way up.  In The Lost Boys he's a total badass motherfucker who repeatedly toys with the protagonists and kills rival gang members without remorse.  Great villain.