Film Reviews

September 26, 2025

"One Battle After Another" exists on two main planes, and fortunately, they are not mutually exclusive. Each is watchable in its own right. On the one hand, this is a hyperkinetic action-adventure thriller and chase movie, with rich and reverberating production values and strong, convincing performances. On the other hand, it's a snapshot of one of America's most incendiary topics that's helping fuel the ongoing culture wars. There is, of course, a cross-over between the film's two identities, and it's mostly able to weave them together seamlessly so that "One Battle" is not only exciting to watch but also ripe for debate and discussion.

First, let's put politics aside, because I think any viewer from either the liberal or conservative camp could watch "One Battle After Another" and objectively agree it is superbly crafted and executed. This should come as no surprise given the director is Paul Thomas Anderson ("Boogie Nights," "There Will Be Blood"), a well-known cinephile with a reputation for making every frame count. From beginning to end, the film's heart rate is detectable, even during quiet scenes with still close-ups and solemn dialogue. Sometimes, Anderson seems to let the actors and action loose, and yet, there are other moments when he keeps them closely in check. Either way, every decision feels deliberate, right down to the smallest details. Films by P.T.A. have a way of holding us because there's so much to absorb, but they don't necessarily squeeze us too hard. They can be simultaneously serious and fun. Few directors are able to walk that line so gracefully and with such self-assuredness, but Anderson can, and here, once again, he does.

Speaking about "One Battle" purely as a cinematic experience, it is a mix of action, suspense, humor, and drama. The film's subject matter, as grim and disturbing as it is, lends itself to all these qualities. Essentially, it follows two opposing but equally resolute groups who have very different opinions over human rights. In one corner: the ballsy and often reckless freedom fighters who call themselves the French 75, who focus on liberating immigrants from detention centers and blowing up buildings belonging to politicians who restrict access to abortion. In the other corner: the stuffed shirt, trigger-happy authorities, namely the police and U.S. military, and the overseeing white men in positions of power who dictate policy.

When the film opens, one of the leaders of the French 75, a Black woman named Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor), humiliates, or perhaps the better word is “gratifies,” an enemy with an equally catchy name, Col. Steven J. Lockjaw (a lean Sean Penn). Even though Perfidia is already spoken for romantically with the oft-fumbling but no less committed Bob (Leonardo DiCaprio), who's just as titillated by the mere mention of explosives as she is, Perfidia seduces Lockjaw and they participate in a highly charged sexual rendezvous.

Without giving too much of the plot away, the film cuts to 16 years later, when reefer addict Bob, with incessant bloodshot eyes and forever lounging around in flannel pajama pants and a housecoat, is a single dad raising his and Perfidia's daughter, Willa (Chase Infiniti), in a remote house in the woods, as a way of staying hidden. Willa isn't even allowed to have a cell phone, but she's nonetheless strong and resourceful, and a karate student of Sensei Sergio (Benicio Del Toro), who reminds her to breathe. She's also under the impression her mother died a hero.

Meanwhile, Lockjaw is being recruited by an elitist, and admittedly racist, white male-only club called the Christmas Adventurers, and because any relationship with a Black woman, past or present, is grounds for rejection, Lockjaw spins up his own bogus mission to capture Bob and Willa in order to confirm whether Willa is his illegitimate daughter. And with that, the chase is on.

Suddenly, without warning, Bob and Willa are separated and on the run, and once again at the mercy of their old friends the French 75, including long-time member Deandra (Regina Hall). From this point on, the movie's main plot engine kicks into high gear and never slows down, with a baked and desperate Bob trying to evade Lockjaw and his goons while simultaneously fighting to get Willa back, although Willa puts up a fight of her own and doesn't simply roll over and take what Lockjaw says she has coming to her.

"One Battle After Another" is relatively linear when it comes to its story, but in terms of presentation, tone, and execution, it has a ceaseless dynamism that is perpetually stimulating, and an urgency and tension that never let up until the very end. Typical of Anderson, much of the film's strength is in the camera work and the minutiae of the visuals. Credit must be given to cinematographer Michael Bauman, production designer Florencia Martin, and the art directing team for guiding us through and showing us the details about the opposing groups' different worlds.

Consider a pivotal moment when a calm and collected Sergio brings a panicking Bob back to his mostly Latino neighborhood and family, and the way Bauman's camera follows them across a shop, up a flight of stairs, down hallways, and eventually into a spacious apartment. Not only is the tracking and Steadycamming through these stuffy interiors impressive, but so are all the trinkets, food, furniture, and meager but important-to-these-people possessions. With all of its motion, and all of the "stuff" in frame, we feel completely indoctrinated in the action.

A parallel scene happens when Tim Smith (John Hoogenakker), a fixer for the Christmas Adventurers, drives his fancy sports car up to the impossibly large, pristine mansion of his superiors, and the camera follows him through a very white, capacious, cleanly space and eventually into a luxury basement. The stark economic differences between the members of the resistance and the ruling white empire are a bit on the nose, but we still marvel in the way the movie presents them. Our heart rates are constantly elevated, even when the characters are in extreme close-ups, and the editing by Andy Jurgensen is especially effective because the holds and the lengths of the takes keep on stacking the tension without releasing it, even though we're hoping and praying that something gives. This nerve-racking feeling is most palpable during a chase at the end along some very hilly desert roads, in what is sure to be one of the film's most talked about sequences.

Adding to the mix and chaos is the memorable, omnipresent score by Johnny Greenwood (of Radiohead fame), who incorporates jazz-tinged, clashing piano riffs, which can be both light and delightful but also agitating and foreboding based on the scene at hand. All these components add up to a clenching, vibrant movie that's sometimes playful and funny, sometimes bleak and grave, but always invigorating.

Getting back to politics, the film's other mission to act as a social commentary isn't as successful, although its efforts on this front are no less intriguing, no doubt because they're so topical and relevant. Anderson's screenplay preserves many of the contentious themes of Thomas Pynchon's 1990 novel, "Vineland," which inspired it, but while the book centered around hippies fighting against Reagan's take on the War on Drugs initiative, "One Battle" takes aim at modern-day racism and immigration policies. It is obviously left-leaning and sides with the poor, the powerless, and people of color (in my opinion, as it should), who are all but forced to keep their heads down and stay quiet, lest they be rounded up and deported or met with persecution and violence, even though, ironically, they couldn't be more gentle, familial, and welcoming, not to mention smart and prepared (at one point, Sergio indirectly tells his family and friends that "this is it, this is what we practiced" after Bob reels him into the situation involving Willa.)

To be clear, I agree with the movie's political agenda. With every crisis that's going in our country's own twisted reality in 2025, I can believe there are secret factions like the Christmas Adventurers Club, who have far-reaching webs and who want to make it so people who don't look like them cease to exist, and therefore, I think it's right for a movie to call them out on their wickedness. On one level, the movie's depiction of surreptitious meetings, sinister schemes, the deployment of military units under pretenses so that maniacal egotists can climb the social ladder, and violence as a first resort, are all concepts that feel like something out of a parody or satire. On another, sadder level, these ideas feel plausible, and it's this credibility that raises the movie's stakes, and even though we may sometimes laugh at how over-the-top things get, they don't seem out of the realm of possibility.

Despite its authenticity, though, I think the film is problematic with its approach toward conveying its political stance and message. It's unfair in the way it paints its liberal protagonists as interesting, flawed, charismatic, and thoughtful—as people who are willing to sacrifice themselves and look out for one another—but simultaneously blankets their conservative counterparts and relies on one-dimensional stereotypes to bring them to life. Sometimes it even doubles down to point out the obvious, as when Willa asks the uptight Lockjaw, "Why is your shirt so tight?"

Unfortunately, I think the film's mockery of its antagonists limits the movie's range beyond a technical and filmmaking tour de force. If it had given the bad guys more dimension, psychoanalyzed them, and made them more than just symbols of hate, aggression, and tribalism, "One Battle After Another" might have appealed to those on the right too. Movies need not always be fair, but in this case, it would have made "One Battle" more interesting. As it is, for us liberals, it simply reinforces what we already believe, and as entertaining as it is, it's not especially challenging. Watching it is like sitting in an echo chamber, which can only be so satisfying. It's as if Anderson and his crew were willing to go full-out on the production but take a more facile, crowd-pleasing approach on the political side.

One other indicator that the movie is perhaps too relaxed narrative-wise is the relatively straightforward ending, which is too simple and traditional compared to everything that came before it, and it also leaves a few plot threads dangling. We even get a safe, overused Tom Petty song on the soundtrack, which reminds us too explicitly that this is a big-budget Hollywood production when it would have been wise to keep us in the characters' dark and unforgiving world.

All that being said, collectively, with all its many virtues and minor flaws, "One Battle After Another" adds up to one big conversation starter. This is the kind of movie that can make anyone feel energized because it's so cinematic and heart-pounding. Anderson makes it a movie first, one that is emotional, funny, sad, and galvanizing. As we take it all in, we're hard-pressed to recall another movie we've seen like it, although "The Fugitive" and "Three Kings" come to mind, which should speak to this movie's ability to exhilarate, enthrall, and never let us go.

It remains outstanding that a movie about immigration policies and practices in the United States does its best to bring together people from both sides of the aisle. I doubt that those on the right will welcome "One Battle" with open arms, but perhaps the pureness and boldness of the filmmaking will entice them to at least give it a try, and they'll allow themselves to get caught up in the jet stream of the movie's action and restlessness. If the movie conveys any universal truth, it's that we all, by virtue of being human, respond to entertainment that makes us feel like we're alive and in motion.