Paul Thomas Anderson has delivered his most insane and topical provocation in years, and it should scrub away any doubt whether the celebrated filmmaker behind “Magnolia,” “The Master” and “There Will Be Blood” is capable of creating a hyper-relevant film from an absurdist 1990 Thomas Pynchon novel.
Anderson attempted that and failed with the so-so “Inherent Vice,” starring Joaquin Phoenix.
But “One Battle After Another” pairs well with Anderson’s style, and turns Pynchon’s “Vineland” into a jacked-up and unruly ride through a rugged, gone-bonkers America of the here and now — land of the not-so free and home to anarchists and fascists who roam and collide.
It’s not a perfect film, but set aside some of its problems and just surrender to cluster after cluster of technically inspired, seamlessly executed sequences that will take your breath away and give you goosebumps. They’re that good.
These include: A tense, hypnotic car chase that plays out over an undulating wave-like road — it’s destined to become an iconic American movie moment — and a rooftop bit of parkour-like derring-do, with skateboarders, no less, that echoes elements of shadow puppetry and even Dick Van Dyke jumping about amongst chimney stacks in “Mary Poppins.”
They are just a couple of the marvels to behold in a film that should become part of the national lexicon and discussed in cinema history classes for ages. The soundtrack is perfect, too. As are the cinematography and production details.
The story taps into the political zeitgeist — indeed, the madness — we’re all swimming in. Anderson uses a classic Wile E. Coyote/Road Runner chase structure with zonked-out ex-revolutionist Bob (Leonard DiCaprio) dodging a psycho military goon, Col. Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn). It the middle of all this, with a target emblazoned on her back over the misdeeds of her parents’ violent past, is Bob’s far more with-it 16-year-old daughter Willa (Chase Infiniti of Apple TV+’s “Presumed Innocent”). Lockjaw wants both.
Much of “One Battle” puts us on a time-ticking showdown for these three that’s set in a volatile authoritarian era (the opening is set along the Mexican border).
Too frequently, though, everything stays dialed up to a 10 when sometimes an 8 would suffice. Penn foams at the mouth and chews and spits out every lip-curled word given. His Lockjaw is so tightly wound you’re afraid his head will explode. His body even bristles with tension and he wears too-tight T-shirts that accentuate his granite-chiseled biceps. Most of all, he’s downright unhinged. At one point early in the film, Lockjaw musters up an on-demand erection (see Pynchon’s “Gravity Rainbow” also for how erections figure into his canon.) Yet given all that macho swagger, he’s just a cog in a chew-you-up system; someone less fearsome, more pathetic.
Over-the-top characterizations often fuel satire, but they can dangerously tumble important supporting characters into nothing more than campy caricatures and that befalls Penn at times here. They are also a disservice to a film that intends to tap into genuine emotion over Willa’s plight and background, and the father-daughter dynamic. You just don’t feel it like you should.
Her childhood, with zealous anarchist mom Perfidia (Teyana Taylor of “A Thousand of One”) having abandoned her and left her father to fight for the cause, damn all consequences. That should tug on our hearts since Willa’s worth caring for, but the emotional heft between dad and daughter gets muffled since there’s just not enough oxygen given to those scenes. They feel wedged in.
Perfidia lands in Lockjaw’s trap and he uses her, of course, to try to pinpoint the whereabouts of the anarchist group The French 75. The goal: Wipe ‘em all out.
Lockjaw is not alone in wanting to scrub the counterculture “vermin” from America. A secret cabal made up of by-invite-only wealthy racists and fascists seek the same and convenes to anoint newbies to this exclusive club. (Production designer Florencia Martin reflects so much about these reprehensible characters within the furniture and hunt-like wallpaper; it’s ingenious design, along with DiCaprio’s robe, which I do want.) All of these scenes connect and mirror a cultural flashpoint in our times. They’ll make you laugh and wince — there’s power in them.
Perfidia and Lockjaw’s masochistic power interplay early on, however, unspools less successfully. Potent scenes fail to be as intense as Taylor’s grind-you-up performance that scorches everything and everyone around her. It seems oddly out of place, and weird.
Problems such as that and the bloated running time (it surpasses 2½ hours) fade in the background once the chase begins and the goateed Bob seeks the guidance of Willa’s judo school sensei (Benicio del Toro, who gives the film an appropriate Zen centering, a breath amid the clamorous action).
Di Caprio’s and Infinity’s performances stand out in a cast that’s too jacked on star power. (Regina Hall’s character Deandra suffers for it, and doesn’t receive the in-depth treatment the actor’s presence should require.) And when del Toro glides in, he is so good that he quietly takes over “One Battle After Another.” Sadly, his gem of a performance hints at how the film could have benefitted from Anderson dialing it back just a wee bit from time to time.
As it is, the heralded director has just delivered what might be remembered as the best movie of 2025 — at the very least, it will be remembered.
‘ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER’
3½ stars out of 4
Rating: R (Violence, language, sexual content, drug use)
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, Alana Haim
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Running time: 2 hours, 42 minutes
When & where: Opens Sept. 26 in theaters
