One Battle After Another, the year’s best reviewed film thus far and the presumed frontrunner for this year’s Best Picture Oscar, is now available for rental or purchase digitally from Prime Video and other sources two months ahead of its streaming and video releases.

While Paul Thomas Anderson is likely to win his first Oscar for Best Director for One Battle After Another following 11 failed nominations in various categories, the film is not as beloved by audiences as much as some of his previous works such as Boogie Nights, Magnolia, There Will Be Blood, The Master, Phantom Thread and even Licorice Pizza. That’s because audiences tend to judge a film by what is in front of them whereas critics tend to look at a film with greater insight.

The film’s title, for instance, can be taken literally to describe the film’ on-screen action, but it can also be taken metaphorically as a description of life itself which can be one battle after another.

The action, which begins with a group of revolutionaries taking on the establishment, centers mostly on the surviving members of the group’s efforts to protect the daughter of one of them almost two decades later. There are many parallels to current events both in the film’s opening sequences and in its later scenes. It’s obviously Trump’s America or a reasonable facsimile of it that the revolutionaries are rebelling against from the horrid conditions of life in holding cells for rounded up immigrants to the callous disregard for people they don’t agree with.

The blatant racism of government officials in the film is not much worse than what we see in the news every day now. One character in the film has spent his life committing atrocious crimes against humanity but only incurs the wrath of the government leaders for one thing – the fathering of a child with a Black woman which leads to his being marked for death.

Like Dr. Strangelove in 1964, the film is a satire but although there are comic moments in it, it’s not a comedy which is why it seems so startling that Warner Bros. has submitted the film for Golden Globe consideration as a comedy. Warner obviously did that so the film wouldn’t be in competition with Sinners, their other blockbuster film this year.

I won’t go into plot details because if you haven’t seen it, the less you know about the film, the more you will enjoy it. I will, however, discuss the merits of the key performances.

For me, Leonardo DiCaprio gives his best performance since 1993’s What’s Eating Gilbert Grape for which he received his first Oscar nomination at 17. While he’s given many memorable performances since, he’s never seemed as relaxed at playing a basically sincere character again until now. His scenes with Chase Infinity as his daughter are especially moving.

Infinity gives one of the year’s best female performances, the only question being is her role leading or supporting? It’s one that could be considered either much in the same way that recent Oscar nominees Michelle Williams in The Fabelmans and Lily Gladstone in Killers of the Flower Moon could have been considered either. Like Williams and Gladstone, she is being pushed for lead in this year’s Oscar race. Only time will tell if that campaign is successful.

Teyana Taylor dominates the opening scenes of the film as one of the revolutionary leaders but is gone with more than two hours left of the film. Will she be remembered at Oscar time? Again, only time will tell.

Sean Penn has his best role in years as the film’s principal villain.

Benicio Del Toro and Regina Hall are both outstanding as former revolutionaries who help DiCaprio and Infinity in the present. Oscar nominations for both are possible but less likely than ones for Penn and Taylor.

Now streaming on Peacock and available to purchase on 4K and standard Blu-ray, Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale is not so much a movie as it is a farewell to the beloved TV series and its subsequent two theatrical films.

The film’s narrative, such as it is, is tied to the retirement of the Earl of Grantham (Hugh Bonneville) retirement and that of his wife (Elizabeth McGovern) to the dower house after the death of his mother (Maggie Smith) with his daughter, Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) assuming responsibility for Downton Abbey. What little drama there is revolves around the scandal of Mary’s divorce from her second husband.

Maggie Smith’s character, which dominated the series from its debut in 2010, was killed off in the second theatrical film, 2022’s Downton Abbey: A New Era while the beloved actress herself died in 2024. Nevertheless, she still steals the latest film in a tribute to her character at the end of the film.

Included on the Blu-ray and 4K versions is the documentary Downton Abbey Celebrates the Grand Finale, the highlight of which is its tribute to both Maggie Smith’s character and the actress herself.

Also newly released on home video are 4K UHD upgrades of 1975’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest from Warner Bros., 1980’s Altered States from Criterion, 2015’s Spotlight from Shout Select, 2016’s Snowden from Shout Select, and 2021’s Nightmare Alley from Criterion.

All of course look and sound the best they ever have with the now 50-year-old One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest looking astonishingly good after years of faded color releases.

The most elaborate release is Guillermo del Toro’s remake of 1947’sNightmare Alley
which contains both the theatrical release version of the film and del Toro’s director’s cut which is in black-and-white.

All five releases contain multiple extras.

Happy viewing.