Podcaster Adam Carolla is not celebrating Hollywood’s biggest night. Just hours after Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” swept the 98th Academy Awards with six wins, Carolla went on his show and tore into the film, calling it a product of political bias rather than artistic merit. His fiery take has reignited the debate about whether the Oscars truly reward the best filmmaking or just the loudest messaging.
What Carolla Said on His Podcast
The podcaster and comic blasted the Academy for showering the film with wins, suggesting artistic quality had less to do with the results than its progressive agenda. “It’s not a good film,” Carolla said.1
He went further. “It’s sad, but if you make a film that has a theme of White Supremacy and black activism and Sean Penn being a cartoon character, then you got a good chance of winning.”1
He called the movie a “weird, MSNBC producer fever dream” and added, “It wasn’t a good film, not just because I disagree with it politically, it was sort of all over the road.”1
Carolla also took aim at the Best Picture lineup itself. He pointed to Brad Pitt’s “F1,” which earned a Best Picture nomination, and said it had “zero chance” of actually winning. He argued that Oscar voters are hardly invested in car culture, further hurting its chances.1
Adam Carolla criticizes One Battle After Another Best Picture Oscar 2026
How Big Was the Film’s Oscar Night?
“One Battle After Another” dominated the 2026 ceremony like few films in recent memory.
It took home six Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay for Paul Thomas Anderson, Best Supporting Actor for Sean Penn, plus Best Editing, and the first ever Best Casting Award.2
Paul Thomas Anderson, who somehow went into the night with zero Oscars, went home with three of the biggest. He won for adapted screenplay and director. He took home his third when the film ended the night with the Academy’s biggest trophy.3
Here is how the night’s top winners stacked up:
| Film | Oscar Wins | Key Categories |
|---|---|---|
| One Battle After Another | 6 | Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Supporting Actor, Editing, Casting |
| Sinners | 4 | Best Actor, Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Original Score |
| Frankenstein | 3 | Multiple craft categories |
| KPop Demon Hunters | 2 | Animated Feature, Original Song |
Sinners came into Sunday night’s ceremony with a record 16 Oscar nominations. But the big question of the night was how many nods it could actually convert into wins.4
The Film That Sparked the Debate
So what is “One Battle After Another” actually about?
The film’s ensemble cast is led by Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, and Chase Infiniti, in her film debut. The story follows an ex-revolutionary who is forced back into his former combative lifestyle as he is pursued by a corrupt military officer.5
The film is a loose adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel Vineland. It marks Anderson’s second time grappling with the postmodern author’s ideas on screen, following 2014’s Inherent Vice.6
Anderson himself has been candid about his approach. In a conversation with Steven Spielberg, he said, “Realistically, for me, Vineland was going to be hard to adapt. Instead, I stole the parts that really resonated with me and started putting all these ideas together.”7
The film’s chilling representation of American politics may be an unintentional departure from the novel’s more whimsical energy. Though the film certainly has a sense of humor, its central conflict feels less absurd today than it may have in 1990. Even the film’s eccentricities, notably a villain’s desire to join a secret society of white supremacists, read as plausible in the current political climate.8
That is exactly the kind of content that has critics like Carolla calling foul.
Critics and Audiences Tell a Different Story
Whatever Carolla thinks, the numbers paint a vastly different picture.
On Rotten Tomatoes, 94% of 437 critics’ reviews are positive. The website’s consensus calls it “an epic screwball adventure teeming with awe-inspiring action set pieces” and “Paul Thomas Anderson’s most entertaining film yet while also one of his most thematically rich.” Metacritic assigned the film a score of 95 out of 100, indicating “universal acclaim.”5
Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of “A” on its A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak rated the film four and a half out of five stars.5
Sight and Sound named it the best film of 2025 in its poll of over 100 international critics. Film Comment also picked it as the year’s best. IndieWire’s annual critics poll voted it number one with 573 points, with 101 of 148 critics placing it on their Top 10 ballots.5
The box office picture, however, tells a more complicated tale. As of March 15, 2026, the film has grossed $209.7 million worldwide. It ended up being a box office disappointment, falling short of its estimated $300 million break even point.5
Warner Bros. spent more than $130 million on production and $70 million on promotional efforts, and ticket sales are typically split 50-50 between studios and theater operators.9
The Bigger Question About Oscar Politics
Carolla’s rant is not happening in a vacuum. It taps into a long running frustration among conservative commentators who believe the Academy consistently favors films with progressive themes.
The ceremony leaned into culture and politics more than other shows this award season, but managed to do so with a sense of brightness and, sometimes, optimism.10 Some of those moments had to do with the current political climate in the United States. Host Conan O’Brien and his fellow presenters deftly avoided mentioning President Donald Trump by name, but their barbs took direct aim at his policies since returning to office.4
Meanwhile, Sean Penn has built one of the most decorated careers in contemporary acting, adding another Oscar to the list. But Penn, 65, did not attend the Oscars.11 After skipping the ceremony, he arrived Monday in Kyiv, where he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.12
That choice alone speaks volumes about the intersection of art, politics, and personal conviction that fuels debates like the one Carolla started.
Anderson, for his part, offered a more humble take when accepting the Best Picture award. “There is no best,” he said. “There is just what the mood might be that day. But we’re happy to be a part of this.”13
Whether you agree with Adam Carolla or think “One Battle After Another” earned every single one of its six Oscars, one thing is clear. This film has become more than just a movie. It is a cultural flashpoint. In a country already divided, a story about a washed up revolutionary fighting for his daughter has somehow become the latest front in America’s never ending culture war. And that, perhaps more than any trophy, proves just how powerful the right film at the right time can be.
What do you think? Did “One Battle After Another” deserve its Best Picture win, or is Carolla onto something? Drop your thoughts in the comments below.
