Paul Thomas Anderson is no stranger to political themes in his movies. There Will Be Blood criticized the early 20th century’s unchecked capitalist greed and its conflicted relationship with traditional religious values. The Master foreshadows cult-ish and groupthink behavior in current-day America. Boogie Nights highlights the dangerous glamour of the adult film industry and its ideas of corrupt exploitation and actors’ reliance on drugs.
Yet One Battle After Another is Anderson’s most overtly political movie. Loosely based on the postmodern fiction novel Vineland by Thomas Pynchon, the action comedy seems to send a message in a time of immense political turmoil in the U.S.
The movie features a cast of Leonardo DiCaprio, Teyana Taylor, and Sean Penn. Gen-Z star Chase Infiniti also made her film debut, slaying in her action-packed role as the daughter of Bob (DiCaprio) and Perfidia (Taylor).
Sales and critical reception
One Battle After Another is here to stay. The drama film has already received a 96% score on Rotten Tomatoes and 4.5 out of 5 stars on Letterboxd, making it the most critically acclaimed movie of the year. Last opening weekend, the film competed with Gabby’s Dollhouse for box office sales, beating the children’s movie nearly double.
Still, many have called the movie a flop, considering its reported budget of a whopping $130 million. Factoring in marketing costs and paying theater operators, the movie needs $300 million to break even.
Its commercial underperformance thus far isn’t surprising, considering Paul Thomas Anderson isn’t a blockbuster director. The ambitious storytelling and striking visuals on their own make up for its lacking sales.
Plot
Ghetto Pat Calhoun (later Bob Ferguson) and Perfidia Beverly Hills lead a left-wing revolutionary group called the French 75 to help break out immigrants from a detention center. Perfidia finds government official Captain Lockjaw (Sean Penn) in one of the guard tents. She sticks a gun to his face and humiliating him, only to reveal clear intimate relations between the two. Low-key racial fetishization becomes a key conflict between government officials within the movie, as Lockjaw is outwardly racist, whilst having an affair with Perifidia. As the film progresses, the secret white supremacist group Christmas Adventures Club offers Lockjaw a position. He accepts the offer and must prove his “racial purity” after a rumor of him and Perfidia surfaces.
Throughout the film, Lockjaw assumes positions of power and inflicts his authority upon those he deems undesirable. The French 75 is anti-racist and gears their mission toward black liberation and power. Their ego and sheer ambition get in the way though. The group takes quite the tumble at the film’s beginning, as some are arrested or shot in trivial pursuits.
The action in the film is cinema at its best. Each moment of physical and mental conflict encapsulates the idea of One Battle After Another. Each character experiences internal strife, with Bob smoking weed to cope with his post-revolutionary life, Lockjaw’s sheer hypocrisy and racial insecurities, Perfidia’s post-partum depression and ultimate betrayal, and Willa’s need to live up to her mother’s standards. The action, on the other hand, is intense at each moment.
One Battle After Another is loud, chaotic, and deliberately over the top. The film offers intensity with shootouts and large-scale clashes with militarized forces. Tense standoffs and hand-to-hand combat scenes have you glued to the screen. The action feels visceral, as the story consistently feels anarchic while dealing with ideas of politics and personal insecurities.
Key performances
Leonardo DiCaprio fully disappears into the role of Bob Ferguson, trading his usual dramatic seriousness for a comedic, stoner ex-revolutionary dad. His funniest moments are often the smallest, like having to constantly be bailed out of trouble by Willa’s sensei Sergio, who makes Bob seem like he was never a revolutionary at all. Yet DiCaprio also proves his dramatic chops in scenes with his daughter and during confrontations with Lockjaw. Versatile and magnetic, he dominates the screen once again, making Bob Ferguson another standout addition to his long line of memorable performances.
Captain Lockjaw is one of Sean Penn’s most daring characters yet. Lockjaw is authoritarian, nationalistic, and war-ready. He is a strong figure and a critique of American patriotism. He had an uncanny look of masculinity, and he certainly made the most of the action and conflict he was in
Perfidia Beverly Hills is yet another standout, carrying the beginning of the film with her sadistic behaviors and unpredictability. Her sheer emotional baggage was intentionally stressful to watch as it led to her demise. Teyana Taylor contributed the most human moments within the film, leaving her character vulnerable at nearly every point.
Chase Infiniti as Willa delivers a decisive turn, carrying the film’s emotional core from her mother’s arrest. She brings more acts of vulnerability, but bests her mother in intelligence. Like her mother, she has fierce self-reliance. She’s not just a daughter caught in her mother’s legacy, but a character capable of emotional maturity and action. Her emotional range comes through especially in key scenes like when she confronts Lockjaw, the adrenaline-charged highway chase, and when she must rely on her training and instincts. Infiniti’s performance prevents Willa from being overshadowed by the more flamboyant or extreme characters. Instead, she feels authentic, believable, and earned. She’s a teenager at heart, as most directors and newer actors cannot fully encapsulate the youth experience, but Infiniti does it well. Anderson’s dialogue has Willa explain nonbinary people and how to take a selfie to her clueless father.
Camera work and cinematography
Paul Thomas Anderson is no amateur when it comes to directing. The film’s flashy camera tricks were executed well. The shaky handheld shots and wide-angle distortion gave the action a gritty, in-your-face vibe—the bursts of neon color and slow-motion felt like playful jabs at over-the-top Hollywood blockbusters. The camera was entirely a part of the chaos, as the angles especially increased the sheer unpredictability of the action.
VistaVision is the film’s format of choice, which has not been popular since the 1950s. Directors and cinematographers tend to geek out about it, using vintage VistaVision cameras for memorable sequences to get that vibe that digital doesn’t quite replicate. Paul Thomas Anderson is one of the few contemporary directors, as Brady Corbet used it for his film The Brutalist last year.
Worth a watch?
In the end, One Battle After Another cements Paul Thomas Anderson’s reputation as a director unafraid to push boundaries visually and thematically. While its box office performance may not reflect its artistic ambition, the movie more than makes up for it with top-tier performances from Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Teyana Taylor, and breakout star Chase Infiniti.
One Battle After Another is one of the year’s best films despite a weak trailer. Its unpredictably good action-packed moments and tear-jerking character developments make this story a good one. Despite its massive budget, Superman, Sinners, and Weapons have all been big hits in theaters this year, and One Battle After Another surely won’t trail behind in profits.
Todd Taylor
December 3, 2025 at 4:46 am
Great review Ethan!