One Battle After Another (2025)

Every time Paul Thomas Anderson releases a new film now, all hell breaks loose. The hype is usually warranted of course; this is the man who's brought us Boogie Nights (1997), Magnolia (1999) and There Will Be Blood (2007) to name but a few masterpieces- and it's not a stretch to argue that the man has never made a bad film.

One Battle After Another, loosely based on Thomas Pynchon's 1990 novel Vineland, stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Teyana Taylor, Regina King and Sean Penn and is a sprawling, near three-hour epic, that has received pretty much five star reviews across the board from critics.

As it always is with Anderson's films, it's difficult to form a full opinion after one viewing, but I'll do my best, but suffice to say, One Battle After Another is very good, and the full scale of it will hopefully become clearer on repeat viewings. DiCaprio and his girlfriend Perfidia (Taylor) are far-left revolutionaries, blowing up everything they can to upset authoritarian institutions, freeing migrants from camps, and generally causing chaos under the banner of fighting for freedom.

Perfidia also has a profound effect on Sean Penn's Col Steven Lockjaw, who evidently derives some sort of bizarre sexual excitement from the battle he wages personally against Perfidia, and this deranged relationship forms the crux of One Battle After Another. When Perfidia falls pregnant, DiCaprio's Bob despairs at her seeming indifference to proceedings, and once Willa (Chase Infiniti) is born, Perfidia scarpers, turning rat and giving the names of everyone in their revolutionary group, known as the French 75.

As members are rounded up by Lockjaw and his crew, we fast forward sixteen years, to where Willa and Bob are still lying low (Willa isn't allowed her own phone for fear of being tracked) and Bob has essentially become a drugged up low-life. Things all kick off once more when Lockjaw learns of their location, and it all goes south.

Just like Ari Aster's Eddington earlier this year, One Battle After Another straddles a political line, and Anderson is clever enough not to offer any of his own opinions. He makes it culturally relevant of course, dropping hints to the problems of the modern world- but while critics have fawned over all of this, they were generally far more critical of Aster's film. This is what makes things interesting- Anderson's focus on implication and weaving a political narrative into a truly thrilling piece of cinema is subtly done- you're so wrapped up in the non-stop action of the piece that you can barely stop to think about the deeper political messages.

Aster's Eddington was far more in your face- but all it did was show what life was really like under Covid restrictions, as well as providing accurate portrayals of violent activist protests- but again, Aster was clever enough to leave the interpretations of what he was showing up to the viewer.

Maybe people were harder on Eddington because they didn't like to be reminded of their own blind culpability in some pretty bizarre and outlandish situations during that period, whereas Anderson gives you a cinematic narrative to sink your teeth into- I don't know. It's easier to take against Penn's character and those above him for the obvious reason that he's part of a white supremacist group aside from being an army colonel; it's also worth noting that Bob appears to regret a lot of the violence he caused fighting for the far left the older he gets. I'm not directly comparing the two types of extremism directly, but the broader insinuation that no extremism is positive seems to be one that's been lost on some. None of the violence and hatred in the film are worth celebrating.

One Battle After Another is a better film than Eddington, but that's not to say its messages are more important or more relevant than Aster's.

The frenetic pacing of Anderson's film keeps proceedings on a constant knife-edge, keeping you gripped, anchored by another astonishing score by Johnny Greenwood. The partnership between Anderson and Greenwood has become one of cinema's all time greats, and it's not too bold to suggest that this might Greenwood's best score yet; full of strange oddities that are perfectly pitched, especially during scenes of real tension and rooftop chases.

Indeed, in some ways, One Battle After Another is simply one giant chase movie, to describe it in its simplest form. It's also frequently funny; scenes in which Bob makes efforts to come to terms with the social changes of the current day are once more pitched to both sides of the political spectrum. Benecio del Toro turns up later on as Willa's karate instructor, and proceeds to help Bob escape from Lockjaw- all the while managing to maintain a stoic outlook on the madness that's unfurling. The performances across the board, it should be said, are brilliant, but it's Penn who has the most fun here. He's brilliant as Lockjaw, facial twitches and an inimitable walk add menace to a character who is hilarious as he is harrowing.

It's concomitantly amusing and serious, thrilling, on occasion baffling, and a whole host of other things. But it's not simply a case of Anderson throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks; we know him better than that by now. The film moves at such a speed it will be interesting to see what you can pick out on second, third, fourth viewings- and you can be sure that multiple viewings will provide their rewards.

This might not be Anderson's best- for my money that's still There Will Be Blood- but it took a few viewings of that for it to fully unearth its genius to me. It seems many have pitched this a masterpiece after one viewing, perhaps proving they're all cleverer individuals than me. Or they might just be jumping on a bandwagon, who knows.

One Battle After Another is one of the years finest films, of that you can be sure- but just how good remains to be seen. 8.4/10