Best Supporting Actor 2025: Sean Penn in One Battle After Another

Sean Penn received his sixth Oscar nomination for portraying Col. Stephen J. Lockjaw in One Battle After Another.

The last time I covered Sean Penn was for his humane depiction of a soldier in The Thin Red Line, a man of the earth but struggling with the notions of his optimistic fellow soldier…well he’s playing a soldier but the comparisons stop there. In fact even the comparisons to Penn’s choices as an actor, because while that is some of Penn’s best work making use of naturalism and nuance…his performance as the brilliantly named Col. Stephen J. Lockjaw is full of mannerisms Penn. But just like every acting choice it is about context more than anything, and perhaps the context that Penn is a muscled out soldier sporting Bert’s hairstyle from Sesame Street suggests this might not be the most subtle of characters. Something Penn owns from the moment we are introduced to him as the French 75 revolutionary member Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor) holds him at gunpoint as part of a mission to free a detention center. Something Lockjaw reacts to by getting deeply unpleasantly aroused, which Penn makes an art form out of being as disgusting as humanly possible with every choice that he makes. Penn wants us to see the hideousness with every little scrunch of his face, the small lick of his tongue, and the accentuation of the sexual arousal in as unappealing a fashion as possible. Penn is hilarious in playing into making us squirm, as we see Lockjaw squirm, in a way he sadly likes, as he continues to obsess over Perfidia including watching her while engaging in behavior I’d rather not further describe, yet will say Penn’s physical depiction of it is an expert bit of horribleness. 

Penn weaponizes sleaze in funny but also properly unpleasant fashion, as we see Lockjaw going about his own sexual pursuit of Perfidia, which of course involves blackmail however unfortunately for all she too seems to be interested in these escapades to a certain extent, despite also being in a relationship with fellow revolution eventually called Bob (Leonardo DiCaprio) and the two having a child that may be Bob’s or may be Lockjaw’s. Which leads to the only scene where Penn and DiCaprio share screentime, and we see the twisted state of being of Lockjaw that could only be realized in this very specific way by Penn’s totally insane performance. While at a grocery store Lockjaw comes behind him asking if Bob has a baby, and in Penn’s eyes there’s a strange bit of pathos of a man who thinks of it as his baby potentially. But any traditional humanity is quickly, and hilariously lost as Bob reveals the baby’s name as Charlene which Lockjaw insanely replies that it sounds like a black girl’s name with a strange vicious authority. Penn only upped the ante of lunacy as he asks if Bob “likes black girls”, to which he doesn’t wait for an answer instead proclaims he loves them. Penn saying these lines as though Lockjaw is pronouncing his greater appreciation for Perfidia to the point again, where it seems like he is still maybe getting aroused just by saying the words in the full bodied way Penn has Lockjaw express himself. Where this is comic gold but also realizes the less than normal state of Lockjaw’s way of expressing himself. 

The construction of this character from the ground up, or perhaps the walk up would be more accurate is a deconstruction of the most strict representation of the military. As Lockjaw is the main villain of the piece, the Christmas adventure club (more on them later), and Lockjaw’s own subordinate Danvers (James Raterman) are far scarier and intimidating. That’s not the point of Lockjaw or Penn’s performance however as what he is doing is creating a purposeful artificial representation of a man building himself towards what he believes to be the ideal. As everything Penn does is phony to some respect yet brilliantly realized in the specificity of the construction of the choice. His walk is a showcase of that because it such a specific walk of a man who can’t walk up right in the proper military manner, however he’s trying to do so more than anyone ever has looking more like a scarecrow pretending to be man as Lockjaw essentially pretends to be cock of the walk in the most obvious way. Even his mouth movements are frequently like a man trying to place his face as a hard jaw constantly, but again Penn’s brilliant by making it as effortful as possible. Rounding out these choices magnificently is his voice again maybe a certain imitation of a political figure however also again this parody of the tough grizzled military type, however Lockjaw via Penn sounds like he might have some serious throat condition. Becoming essentially a boy playing dress-up, summarized maybe after Perfidia gets arrested and he offers her immunity by choosing him. Lockjaw's threat is delivered with this shyness as though he’s asking her out on date, and then when she runs away from his house for her, Penn holding the flowers and finding her note to him, he might as well be Charlie Brown who got a rock. Both comparisons are meant as the highest praise.

Unfortunately losing Perfidia only causes Lockjaw to switch his intentions to becoming a member of the white supremacist group known as the Christmas Adventurer’s club, where Penn brings the dumbest possible face of eagerness as he gets the chance to be as they say a “greater quality individual”. Penn plays it truly as though Lockjaw is getting an entry into the “cool” kids club. The fine print however requires one to abstain from an interracial relationship something Lockjaw proclaimed his love for previously, however now he must eliminate the history of which unfortunately is Perfidia’s daughter now known as Willa (Chase Infiniti). Leading Lockjaw with all his military might to make a fake crackdown on Willa’s hometown in order to find her and purge any history of the relationship. Eventually finding her and perhaps finding some of Penn’s greatest work in the film as he interacts with his possible daughter with fascinating choices between the two halves of the scene between thinking she’s his daughter and knowing it is her. Penn first emphasized just the defensive state of Lockjaw and the massive insecurity. With perhaps one of the funniest moments of 2025 when Willa simply asks why his shirt is so tight and Penn’s explosive proclamation that “he’s not gay if that’s what she means” is absolute comic gold but also reflection of the charlatan nature of Lockjaw’s whole demeanor that crumbles with such ease.

 When it is revealed that she is her daughter, Penn’s performance is simply outstanding in the bizarre way he brings in this paternalistic quality, while Lockjaw is planning on having her murdered. Penn delivers a strange undercurrent of excitement mixed in anger when chasing her as she runs, proclaiming it as a “daddy daughter game”. When even bringing her to be killed his “corrections” to her are framed so marvelously by Penn as this deranged state of trying to be a dad, and brings some insane desperation that doesn’t form a regret however does show masterfully that Lockjaw has no idea what to do with genuine emotions nagging at him. It is a wonderful grotesque display, that is funny in oddness yet also captivating in developing such a unique cinematic state of derangement. I will admit I so adored everything Penn was doing, I might've been slightly disappointed when his performance was seemingly put to an end by a Christmas Adventurer assassin, for his coverup and interracial child, by being shot in the face. Thankfully, an improbable choice in the film I don’t mind in the slightest, where Lockjaw manages to survive the gunshot and car crash in order to return for one more scene where he attempts to explain how he was the “victim” of Perfidia’s sexual advances. Penn was not in the slightest wasting the scene in the slightest with his straight-faced, yet totally unconvincing way of describing particularly his attempt to sound so confident in affirming that she was indeed a “semen demon”. Penn delivers one more bit of pure hilarity before making his final also comical exit thanks to that perfectly dumb look on his face. I adore this performance as basically it rejects almost all typically notions of how to approach the role, he’s not a charismatic villain, he’s not a likable one, he’s not menacing, he’s not cool, there’s complexity but even that is fleshing out just how ridiculous and pathetic the character is. Penn delivers an outstanding comical excoriation of everything and idea that the character of Stephen J. Lockjaw stands for.