One Battle After Another, Paul Thomas Anderson’s new movie (and the first of his set in the present day since 2002’s Punch Drunk Love), takes place, well, now. It drops the viewer directly into a tumultuous, politically charged landscape and tackles some difficult subject matter. Yet, somehow, it doesn’t feel that heavy. In fact, it’s the best movie experience I’ve had in a movie theater all year.
Leonardo DiCaprio leads the movie as Bob Ferguson, a washed-up revolutionary and former member of the gang known as the French 75. He ditches explosives for diapers once his girlfriend and fellow revolutionary Perfidia (Teyana Taylor) gives birth. And when she decides to continue her life of crime, Bob and his daughter Charlene go on the run and live under the radar. And there they stay until the past comes back to haunt them — launching father and daughter on an unrelenting, erratic race for survival.
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Leonardo DiCaprio stars in One Battle After Another.
A decade and a half after leaving the French 75, Bob’s let himself go. Weed and terrible decisions put his teenage daughter, who now goes by the name Willa (played by Chase Infiniti in her big screen debut), in a resentful caregiver role. Bob is strict where he needs to be and has trained her for certain emergency situations — even though she really doesn’t know his past or the truth about her estranged mother.
The demons Bob has been keeping at bay resurface in the form of a vengeful, cantankerous law enforcement officer named Col. Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn). When he and his team arrive on Bob’s doorstep, the action truly kicks off and forces Bob into the biggest fight of his life.
One Battle After Another feels like a living, breathing thing. The movie’s raw unpredictability permeates it, which isn’t a new aesthetic for Anderson. But this release feels like a personal achievement. When you consider that he’s been developing it for over two decades, that makes perfect sense.
Teyana Taylor stars as Perfidia in One Battle After Another.
Cinematically speaking, One Battle After Another has this timeless vibe in that it very much feels like a product of 2025, yet thanks to the VistaVision camera equipment — a widescreen 35mm film format that was brought out of retirement — there’s a Hitchcockian quality in many of the sequences. This all clicks, considering the fact that Hitchcock’s classic thriller Vertigo was shot on the format.
Michael Bauman’s camera work and Jonny Greenwood’s unnerving score are vital components to the journey Anderson takes you on here. In fact, just like the cast, the cinematography and music appear as important characters throughout the story.
Then there’s the cast, which is operating on the highest level.
DiCaprio is superb as Bob. He is a mess, physically and emotionally, and barrels through every obstacle and challenge thrown at him with a disbelieving bravado that convinced me, as a dad, that if I were put in a similar predicament, I would do it all exactly the same way. As Bob, DiCaprio carries every emotion on his sleeve and teeters between heartbreak and slapstick comedy as he strives to do everything he can to protect his daughter.
Chase Infiniti stars as Willa in One Battle After Another.
I said it above, and it bears repeating: This is Chase Infiniti’s first film role. She nails it. Willa is strong-willed, emotionally available and commands the screen. Infiniti’s chemistry with DiCaprio is fiery and magnetic. If she wasn’t the actor hired to play Willa, I wonder how strong his performance would’ve been.
Speaking of strong female characters, One Battle After Another is stacked with formidable women. Teyana Taylor is a force to be reckoned with as Perfidia. She owns the movie with every moment she is on screen. And when she’s not, her impact on the story is ever-present. Regina Hall, who is most recognizable for her comedy work, delivers some of her best (and thoroughly heartbreaking) work as Deandra.
Rounding out the cast are Benicio del Toro and Sean Penn, both of whom play memorable characters that, if the camera pivoted and solely followed their stories, I wouldn’t have protested one bit. As Sensei Sergio St. Carlos, del Toro shines in a performance that feels effortless and super fun. He’s a source of comedic Zen for Bob, and a calm guiding light for the immigrant families he helps shelter and transport.
Penn’s Lockjaw exists on the other side of the spectrum. This character feels extreme, sometimes outright laughable, which only makes the danger he represents feel ever more real. Everything from Lockjaw’s walk to the exasperated way in which Penn brings the bumbling officer to life is both hysterical and frightening.
Sean Penn stars in One Battle After Another.
While watching the movie, there were multiple times I compared some of the ridiculousness of this far-out story to real life and realized, this stuff isn’t that far off. One Battle After Another is holding up a mirror to society, and the reflection feels bent and distorted, like something you’d see in a carnival funhouse.
That’s what makes the movie terrifying; that’s what makes it terrific.
Things go to bad places in this movie; there’s no denying that. But none of the stuff that goes on here, from domestic terrorism to immigrant families being split up, is represented in a heavy-handed manner.
Anderson doesn’t tell you to think or feel a certain way about everything that happens. He just shows it as it happens, amid a flurry of chaotic car chase scenes and comedic madness.
Fueled by themes of family, love, resistance and community and immersed in a damaged world that feels as if it’s tumbled off its axis, One Battle After Another is a movie for the moment — this moment — and I have no doubt it’ll stay with me for some time.
