Film review: ‘ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER’ by Nick Gardener from ‘Built For Speed’
Paul Thomas Anderson is rightly considered one of the most important directors of the last few decades and his film are regarded as event cinema. Still, his last couple of movies, the nostalgic Liquorice Pizza and oddball fashion world drama Phantom Thread, had mixed reactions. His latest film, the exhilaratingly bonkers activist action/drama/comedy One Battle After Another, is his most provocative and compelling film since The Master but also one of his most crowd pleasing. Inspired by Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel Vineland, One Battle is a potent and intoxicating mix of political commentary, satire, gonzo humour, explosive violence and touching humanity.
The ubiquitous Leonardo do Caprio stars as revolutionary ‘Ghetto’ Pat Calhoun who along with his outrageously named wife Perfidia Hollywood Hills (Teyana Taylor), runs a far-left outfit known as French 75 that breaks out immigrants held in detention. Pursued relentlessly by their nemesis, the grizzled Terminator-like Colonel Steven Lockjaw (Sean Penn) the couple and later their daughter Willa (Chase Infiniti) retreat into hiding and attempt to deal with their failed revolution and imploding personal lives. Within this plot template is a riotous collection of virtuoso action set pieces, chase sequences, bizarre asides, story detours and commentary about contemporary America. At times it feels the film has gone off the rails and has no idea where it’s headed but a powerful and highly inventive drama quickly reasserts itself.
Anderson has masterfully captured the sense of craziness and volatility in the present world with military on the streets, protests erupting into urban warfare and sinister white supremacist organisations pulling the strings. Importantly, the white supremacists are not typical meathead thugs but look like CEOs at a country club who espouse deranged ideologies as if they have some sort of basis in reality. There’s an element of crazed satire here that reminds us not only Thomas Pynchon but also Kurt Vonnegut and Joseph Heller. The film also at times recalls that strange slightly fractured reality of the Fargo TV series with one sequence toward the end strongly evoking an unforgettable part of Fargo season two.
The early part of the film often sees fiery left-wing rhetoric and activism butting against right wing militarism and conservative ideology but the latter part, which is the most affecting, is about family and connection with loved ones. It’s because the cast so deftly negotiate such rapidly and vastly shifting terrain that the performances are so impressive. Leo plays Pat a little like Rick Dalton from Once Upon At Time In Hollywood, a once important and vital figure turned comical slob who’s struggling to cope with the contemporary world. The role seems almost perfectly designed for Leo’s typical mix of tortured earnestness and sympathetic goofiness and it’s as good as anything Leo’s done. Penn is equally good. Even amid his phenomenal resumé, Sean Penn’s Colonel Lockjaw will stand out. Intense and borderline crazy, he embodies the film’s competing threads of violence, political extremism and comical craziness. While she doesn’t appear in the film for as long as Leo and Sean, Teyana Taylor makes as big an impression as anyone. She has an intimidating screen presence as the ferociously driven Perfidia but infuses that with slivers of sensitivity. Relative newcomer Chase Infiniti also makes an indelible impression as the level headed teen trying to cope with her parents’ tumultuous lives. Anderson also provides space for some memorable supporting performances including Benicio del Toros as family friend and karate sensei Sergio St Carlos who houses and protects immigrants and in an astonishing sequence, is called upon to save an out of control Pat. If anything, we could have done with more of Benicio and learned more about Sergio as his role feels slightly underdone. Regina Hall also gives a moving performance as a French 75 member while rapper Jungle Pussy is hard to forget.
Particularly exciting for cinephiles is Anderson’s fidelity to classic filmmaking techniques, most notably of the 1970’s. While the film is clearly set in the present, the wonderful cinematography and the editing evoke the edgier films of that earlier era. There’s none of the flatness of digital video here as Anderson has employed the Vistavision format to give the film both depth and clarity.
Like many Paul Thomas Anderson films, this one benefits from a superb Jonny Greenwood soundtrack which features both an ominous original score, oddly appropriate clattering jazz pieces and well-chosen songs including Steely Dan’s ‘Dirty Work’ and Tom Petty’s ‘American Girl’.
This film works because behind the explosive violence and comical chaos is real heart and a genuinely affecting story of redemption, a desperate quest to recover a life that been squandered and the need to reconnect with lost loved ones. This is one of Anderson’s best and one of the year’s best.
Nick’s rating: ****1/2
Genre: Drama/ Action/ Comedy.
Classification: M/ PG/MA15+.
Director(s): Paul Thomas Anderson.
Release date: 25th Sep 2025.
Running time: 162 mins.
Reviewer: Nick Gardener can be heard on “Built For Speed” every Friday night from 8-10pm on 88.3 Southern FM.
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