One Battle After Another, 2025.
Written and Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson.
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, Chase Infiniti, Alana Haim, Shayna McHayle, Wood Harris, Tony Goldwyn, John Hoogenakker, D.W. Moffett, and Starletta DuPois.
SYNOPSIS:
When their evil nemesis resurfaces after 16 years, a band of ex-revolutionaries reunite to rescue the daughter of one of their own.
In a film with numerous brilliant cinematography and editing choices, the opening to writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another (inspired by Thomas Pynchon’s novel Vineland) features a touch that is both stylish and looms large over the story. Part of it is simply the fact that someone (presumably Anderson himself) saw the incredible performance Teyana Taylor gave in the gripping family drama A Thousand and One and not only gave her a role in such a large-scale, ambitious movie, but also that she is in the first frame.
Gearing up for a revolutionary mission (which ranges from freeing immigrants from detention centers to Black liberation and more), her character, Perfidia (an explosive performance from Taylor further cementing her as an actor that should be on every filmmaker’s radar to work with), is walking as the shot fades into Leonardo DiCaprio’s character, a fellow revolutionary and her significant other, walking to that same job in a different direction and camera perspective.
These two are on the same wavelength, with an intense pull towards one another as much as planting explosives in a building run by some hateful individual or storming, as mentioned, an immigration containment center where the horrifics of such circumstances (children inside cages separated from families) are in plain sight, making it known that while there is pure entertainment on display here, this is also a film tuned into the times. There is an equally intense sexual chemistry, causing them to start making out while plotting their next display of activism.
Once Perfidia is pregnant and has their child, tension arises as their visions of the future are not the same. Perfidia seemingly feels trapped by motherhood and is not only agitated that it will get in the way of her mission to make the world a better, freer place to live, but also that her partner in justified crime has embraced being a father to a degree that he has more or less fallen out of the fight. As she puts it, it’s as if having a daughter has stolen her from him. She also makes the difficult choice to walk out of their lives, which eventually puts the whole resistance in danger once a job goes sideways and she becomes a blackmail pawn in the hands of the sadistic, calculated, emotionless Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw (an icy, ruthless, heartless, yet irresistibly compelling and all-around phenomenal turn from Sean Penn) who is the kind of disgusting white supremacist harboring a secret fetish for Black women and other contradictions and insecurities.
Without giving away specifics, it’s an event that pushes the film 16 years into the future, with new identities for Leonardo DiCaprio’s father character, now called Bob Ferguson, and his daughter, Willa (newcomer Chase Infiniti, who practically steals the movie from everyone else by design), now 16 years old. Throughout that time, “Bob” has aged into a stoner who is certainly not up with modern times (he has no cell phone and forbids Willa from using one), as he is paranoid and still hiding out from enemies of the resistance, which is still operating in some form.
To say that Colonel Lockjaw has unfinished business with the family wouldn’t necessarily be shocking, but the reasoning is as disturbingly horrific as everything else about the character. Fortunately, the resistance also has allies, with Regina Hall’s Deandra on the hunt for Willa before the military goons get to her. It leads to full-on riots in the streets, a daughter confused about her past with more questions than ever, and Leonardo DiCaprio tapping into what he does best: stressing out as if an avalanche of anxiety is closing in on him. “Bob” also finds an ally in Willa’s sensei (Benicio del Toro, a calm counterpoint to the manicness he is acting alongside), who has his own resistance willing to help. Everyone is fighting a battle, and everyone is also ready to lend a hand: it’s the only way to build a less divided, more connected, better future. And it’s all set to an unforgettable score from regular Paul Thomas Anderson collaborator Jonny Greenwood.
This reintroduces “Bob” back into the revolutionary fight, where Father Time (and years of abusing substances) has caught up with them, making him a clumsy liability more than anything. If Liam Neeson had a special set of skills for rescuing or protecting loved ones in Taken, Leonardo DiCaprio’s character has no skills left here other than shouting at resistance operatives that he’s going to shove a stick of dynamite up their ass if they don’t comply with giving information that they can’t give out since his fried mind has forgotten all the communicative passwords and code speak. That all depends on whether one perceives trash-talking as a skill. Either way, it’s up there for one of the funniest running jokes in ages. Nevertheless, things don’t go much better for him when a firearm is in his hands.
To clarify, there are also spectacularly shot action sequences, including a car chase sequence that utilizes roads that ascend and descend like hills, giving the cinematography a rollercoaster ride effect that simultaneously leaves one wondering why it’s shot in that manner before suddenly, and brilliantly, showing why. However, “Bob’s” bumbling nature isn’t meant to be a thoughtless recurring gag; Willa, while endangered, has much in common with her mother. Perhaps it’s an instinct passed down. And while One Battle After Another tugs at parental anxiety with plenty of pointed observations about fatherhood, it unfolds in this manner to make a point: that the fight for freedom is passed down from generation to generation, and that the fight must continue.
Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another is a politically charged story about what happens when radical, extremist freedom fighters transition into parenthood. It’s also an unexpectedly crowd-pleasing action-dark comedy hybrid that is masterfully crafted. The amount of suspense sustained over 145 minutes, as electrifyingly, relentlessly high as it is here, is an accomplishment few filmmakers could ever pull off.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association, Critics Choice Association, and Online Film Critics Society. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews and follow my BlueSky or Letterboxd
