One Battle After Another

Released 2025. Director: Paul Thomas Anderson

IN PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON'S EXUBERANT AND PACEY action-packed comedy-drama, everyone is breaking, bending or ignoring the law at every opportunity. But to see the movie as a crime-soaked satire on America is only half the picture. The idealistic, resourceful and cynical bunch brandishing weapons, robbing banks, tough-talking and executing the escape routes are truly the crackling fireworks that light up the screen.

Leonardo DiCaprio is in peak form as a foot soldier in an underground vigilante group forced into hiding and 16 years later, resurfaces to run for his life and rescue his abducted daughter. He plays Pat, part of a resistance who call themselves French 75. They are activists who raid politicians' offices, sabotage power grids and break into detention camps to free Mexican migrants. When funding is low they have no qualms robbing banks for cash. In one of these robberies Pat's partner Perfidia is caught after killing a security guard. In exchange for witness protection she snitches on the group. Pat takes baby Charlene on the run and change their names to Bob and Willa.

DiCaprio packs so much nervous energy into Bob that he's permanently buzzing like an Energizer bunny. Bob is not an alpha male. He's paranoid but lives his life according to a set of unshakeable personal values. DiCaprio usually plays highly individualistic characters, like Rick Dalton in Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood and Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street. It's terrific to see him in the role of an intensely protective father teetering on the edge. The incompetent side of Bob – forgetting key information, falling off a building, stoned, jittery and clumsy – adds a dash of comic madness to his compromised masculinity. Exactly the kind of performance that puts you ahead in an Oscar race.

DiCaprio is in excellent company here. One Battle After Another boasts so many fine performances that the cast will make a big splash in the coming awards season. Sean Penn, in particular, commands every scene as Bob's nemesis Colonel Lockjaw who embarks on a lethal pursuit to track down and eliminate the renegade father and daughter for very personal reasons. Penn's villain is much more than a buffed exterior. He's a layered loner whose killer instincts are matched by a capacity for tenderness. Benicio Del Toro as the unflappable planner Sergio, Teyana Taylor as the vixenish Perfidia and Chase Infiniti as Willa thrown from one surprise after another are part of the impressive ensemble.

It's not unusual to find this level of acting in One Battle After Another. Paul Thomas Anderson has almost never failed to draw out the finest work from his cast, from Boogie Nights to Magnolia, There Will Be Blood, The Master and Phantom Thread. One Battle After Another is also perhaps Anderson at his technically sharpest as a director. You'd have to be churlish on a bad day to find faults in his screenplay adaptation (with Thomas Pynchon of his novel “Vineland”), or Michael Bauman's VistaVision cinematography (superbly capturing the thrilling see-saw car chase over undulating hills), Andy Jurgensen's editing or Jonny Greenwood's music.

All this means One Battle After Another is highly enjoyable, even riveting and never losing sight of its critique of idealism and fascism. The sense of social disenfranchisement is the current that drives all the actions and ideas. Members of the resistance group are vividly drawn, their lifelong involvement and commitment define who they are. Their extensive support network operating in plain sight is indicative of a growing wave of anti-authoritarian, people-power movement. To spice things up, the sub-plot of Lockjaw's neo-Nazi aspirations is itself a big middle finger to right-wing white supremacy.

When we narrow down the focus, this is about a man who wants to leave the past behind and be left alone in peace, it's about another man's relentless efforts to tie up loose ends to move ahead. Most of all, it's about a father (or two?) and his daughter, and that sooner or later you always reckon with your past. Anderson's savvy balance of drama, comedy, action and suspense with a heavy dose of vigour makes this an engrossing thrill ride.

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