One Battle After Another

And this week's Friday night movie has been... One Battle After Another!

Original image located here. Accessed 17th April 2026

Best Picture Oscar winner no.: 98 (2025) 

It's the latest addition to the line of Academy Awards for Best Picture so how does this one stack up against it's brethren? 

In recent years I have heard some movies made before 1990s being reassessed through having some dated portions & mindsets and subsequently being explained away as being 'products of their time'. This in turn makes me wonder if a similar fate awaits the movies being made in the past decade. I say this as this movie is very much a product of this current time with it's themes: people rising up in violent protest, old white dudes being villainised, people of colour taking aggressive stances and ordinary folk being pushed around by military forces.

But that's only in the first portion of the movie. Because partway through the movie it changes gears and the rest of the runtime is dedicated into being an abduction thriller. And that's where One Battle After Another really shines, being tense and exciting. 
So would that make the first portion something of a Trojan horse? Perhaps but I am impressed that the Academy had the balls to give this the top award. I suppose that is an indication of where the Academy may be heading with the voting process: Changing the rules, challenging formula and adapting to fit the times. And if that means seeing a whole lot of unconventional Best Picture winners then hey, I'm all for it.

The Rise of the Red Hot Chili Peppers: Our Brother Hillel

And this week's Friday night movie has been... The Rise of the Red Hot Chili Peppers: Our Brother Hillel!

Original image located here. Accessed 10th April 2026

This documentary has been doing the rounds lately so I grew curious. Not much is said about the early days of the Red Hot Chili Peppers (ie. pre-Under the Bridge/Blood Sugar Sex Magic) so perhaps this will fill a void....

So what this is a biography on both the Red Hot Chili Peppers and their original guitarist Hillel Slovak. In regards to the latter, a lot is revealed about him: His early life, his childhood bonding with Anthony Kiedis and Flea, his passion for art, his mastery of the guitar and, his influence on the Chili Peppers themselves. Both Kiedis and Flea contribute their own recollections as well as former band mates and friends. And AI is used to replicate Slovak's voice to read his diary entries, thereby giving Slovak a say in the narrative. 

While this documentary works as a vital document of the afore-mentioned early days of the Chili Peppers, it's ultimate goal is to paint a portrait of Hillel Slovak: showing everyone who he was as a person. And it's this that the documentary succeeds with flying colours.
It is striking to see Kiedis and Flea speak openly about their former bandmate - particularly with the latter breaking down. Clearly the loss of their bandmate is still being felt decades later and they are still keen on making sure Slovak isn't forgotten. There certainly is some guilt expressed over how Slovak's ultimate fate and both maintain that the Chili Peppers wouldn't turned out the way they did without his involvement. 
Also of note is John Frusciante, Hillel's successor, providing his own words of admiration for Slovak. 

Like any good documentary it's a compelling mixture of triumph and tragedy. And it does the job of filling in a vital, and indeed overlooked, spot in the Chili Peppers' history.
It's very human and very honest.

My Kid Could Paint That

 And this week's Friday night movie has been... My Kid Could Paint That!

Original image located here. Accessed 3rd April 2026

Last year I was watching a number of documentaries that started going in one direction but ended up somewhere else entirely. But for some reason, I abandoned this approach. So why not resurrect it? After all, this breed of documentary is fascinating to me. 

And this one is a doozy: This is a documentary from 2007 that chronicles a little girl named Marla Olmstead. At four years of age, she shows an ability with painting and is able to produce works that resemble that of abstract expressionism. Before too long, Marla has her own exhibitions, earning praise for her childlike approach and is making serious money.
But then, halfway through the documentary, something happens: 60 Minutes do a feature on Marla, asserting that she is not the genuine article: She is not a child prodigy, she is producing art comparable to that of a normal preschool child and she may have had assistance from her father. 
What follows is the assertions that the works are genuine - even to the point of filming Marla making a piece for five hours - even when the works produced after the expose look different when compared to those that came before.

What is fascinating about this documentary is that the conclusions it draws are non-existent. HOWEVER! The questions it raises are something else: Was it a hoax? Were 60 Minutes being needlessly aggressive? Is abstract expressionism a legit form of art? What makes a child prodigy? Is Marla allowed to be a child? Are we the audience meant to draw our own conclusions?
Given that documentaries often serve as propaganda it is remarkable just how open-ended this one ends up - why, even the director admins to camera that he himself is unable to reach a definitive conclusion. 
And that's what makes this documentary so compelling.