One Battle After Another (2025) Review - Director Series
We have arrived at the last film in this Director Series, reviewing all of Paul Thomas Anderson’s films. The tenth film in his filmography is his long-awaited second Thomas Pynchon adaptation. This time, adapting Pynchon’s 1990 novel Vineland.
Leonardo DiCaprio is Ghetto Pat, Rocketman, and eventually Bob Ferguson, a revolutionary in the organization “The French 75”.
We meet him and the rest of the French 75 on a raid/revolution of an immigrant detainment camp near the US/Mexico border.
It’s here that we also meet Perfidia Beverly Hills, played by Teyana Taylor. They get together over their love of revolting against the government and its treatment of the US people.
However, the high-ranking military official Steve Lockjaw (Sean Penn), who runs the detainment camp that the French 75 initially liberate, sets his eyes on Perfidia.
He blackmails her into sexual favors in exchange for the French 75 to continue to operate.
Except things go awry during a bank robbery, and Perfidia turns informant to keep herself out of prison, sending all the French 75 into hiding, including her man Ghetto Pat and their daughter Willa (Introducing Chase Infiniti).
Sixteen years later, Lockjaw is a Colonel and is asked to join an almost Illuminati-level elite white nationalist group of men who move and shape behind the scenes in America.
They are going to perform a background check on him, threatening to expose the possibility that he has a mixed-race child…Willa.
So, he sends a battalion into Baktan Cross, the sanctuary city where Bob and Willa have been living, and they are forced to go on the run once again.
Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall, Alana Hiam, and Wood Harris all round out a stellar supporting cast of this film.
Leo gives a performance that automatically goes into the pantheon of all his performances. Paranoid, hilarious, angry, and best of all, loose. Leo is at his best when he is loose, and he dominates the second half of this film.
Teyana Taylor is incredible; she’s striking in appearance and commanding in her performance. Always confident and holds the camera in statis every time she is on film.
Chase Infiniti is also brilliant in a first performance on the big screen. You can feel her rage build as the film works to its climax.
Benicio is the calm inside the storm; his performance is a welcome grounding from the chaos that is ensuing all around. A warm presence from a performer who can do a lot with just a glance.
Sean Penn reminds everyone why he is Sean Penn in arguably his most vile performance, which still finds humor in his wretched behavior. It works because we are always laughing at Lockjaw, never with him.
Which is one of the thousand brilliant details of Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest script. More than any other film I have seen from a filmmaker, this is a culmination of Anderson’s entire filmography.
The propulsiveness of Boogie Nights, the humor of Licorice Pizza, and the gravitas of There Will Be Blood.
However, no longer can you see his inspirations on his sleeve; there is no mistaking who made this film, it is a Paul Thomas Anderson film.
Yet, like all his previous films, it feels completely different from all the other films in his filmography. This is almost an out-and-out action film, with sequences I didn’t know Paul had in him, only because he had never done it before.
It has taken him somewhere around 20 years of tinkering to get this script right. Maybe the universe was having him wait for the perfect cast.
You can feel the passion seeping through the screen, his ideas and ideals simmering for so long, and these ideals are now boiling over, given our current climate.
Paul has never made a film this outright politically charged. I was almost taken aback from the first viewing, only because I’ve never thought about his political beliefs. However, in our times, it’s hard to stay neutral or silent, as politics is becoming just a question of morality.
This feels like an incredibly personal film to Anderson, clearly how he sees our government’s treatment of minorities, but also in his mixed relationship with his wife, Maya Rudolph.
It also works on the level of a father/daughter relationship and the fears, struggles, and beauty that come with that.
PTA has famously told the story about his brief time in Film school, and his teacher said If you’re here to make Terminator 2, then leave and he did.
He didn’t think anyone should be deterred from making what they want, and he is right, but it feels like he has been building to this moment, keeping that teacher in mind for his entire career; the only thing that could’ve been better is if he thanked them in the credits.
An incredible film that my favorite filmmaker has been working towards for his entire career. The culmination is maybe his greatest film, in a work of Paul’s caliber that is saying a lot, but the film speaks for itself; the only thing holding me back is time.
But I’ve seen it twice, and it’s just as good the second time, maybe even better. Let’s see how this film holds up in five years, but this may be considered the film of the decade.
If I worked in the betting sector, I’d put the Oscar nominations currently at an over/under of 10.5. I just hope after 11 losses, PTA will finally go home with a gold statue, if there was ever a time to reward him, now is the time.
5/5 Stars… ¡VIVA LA REVOLUCIÓN!
