[FILM REVIEW] ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER Review (2025)
Summary: When their evil enemy resurfaces after 16 years, a group of ex-revolutionaries reunite to rescue the daughter of one of their own.
Year: 2025
Cinema Release Dates: 25th September 2025 (Australia), 25th September 2025 (Thailand), 26th September 2025 (UK), 26th September 2025 (USA)
VOD Release Dates: TBA
Country: USA
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Screenwriter: Paul Thomas Anderson
Cast: Pearl Minnie Anderson (Sister Coco), Dan Charlton (Comrade Josh), Julian Corral (Julian), Autumn Crosswhite (Autumn), Benicio Del Toro (Sensei Sergio St. Carlos), Esperanza Rodarte De Santoya (Esperanza), Brooklyn Demme (Sober Rick), Leonardo DiCaprio (Bob), Sachi Diserafino (R.A. Rippey), James Downey (Sandy Irvine), Dijon Duenas (Talleyrand), Melissa Duenas (Sylvia), Starletta DuPois (Gramma Minnie), Jeremy Ekalo (Lt. Skinner), Vanessa Ganter (Momma Sandrae), Sherron Gassoway (Sister Vox), Tony Goldwyn (Virgil Throckmorton), Colton Gantt (Bobo), April Grace (Sister Rochelle), Paul Grimstad (Sommerville), Otillia Gupta (Newborn Baby Charlene), Alana Haim (Mae West), Regina Hall (Deandra), Wood Harris (Laredo), John Hoogenakker (Tim Smith), Chase Infiniti (Willa), Sandra Iturbe (Reina), Nia Leon (Baby Charlene), Jena Malone (Greeting Code (voice)), Gilberto Martinez Jnr. (BeeGee), Ted McCarthy (Christmas Ted), Carlos McFarland (Bluto), Shayna McHayle (Junglepussy), D.W. Moffett (Bill Desmond), Hadasa Genesaret Palomares (Sacred Heart), Elizabeth Pease (RiRi), Sean Penn (Col. Steven J. Lockjaw), Bryan Pickens (Billy Toejam), Marisela Borjas Ramirez (Marisela), James Raterman (Danvers), Derrick J. Saenz (Primo Derrick), Elijah Joseph Sambrano (Latino Heat), Eric Schweig (Avanti), Joe Silva (Sgt. Joe), Patricia Ridgley Storm (Alice More), Teyana Taylor (Perfidia), Kevin Tighe (Roy More), Luis Trejo (Luis)
Running Time: 161 minutes
Classification: M (Australia), 15 (Thailand), 15 (UK), R (USA)
OUR ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER REVIEWS
David Griffiths’s One Battle After Another Review
Even the mere thought of director Paul Thomas Anderson teaming up Leonardo DiCaprio should be enough to excite any film lover. The man responsible for stunning films like Boogie Nights, Inherent Vice and Licorice Pizza directing a movie starring an actor who rarely makes a bad movie is certain to result in some cinematic magic, right?
Well you would expect so – but what none of us factored into that equation is that perhaps both of them were due for a miss. To be honest One Battle After Another isn’t exactly a terrible film it just doesn’t reach the heights of either Paul Thomas Anderson or Leonardo DiCaprio’s past films.
The film centres around a couple known as Pat Calhoun (Leonardo Di Caprio – Titanic) and Perfidia Beverley Hills (Teyana Taylor – Coming 2 America) who are members of a domestic terrorist organisation known as French 75. There plan is to free people from a fascist Government that is in charge of the USA.
However shortly after giving birth to a baby Perfidia’s life is changed forever when she is arrested after a bank robbery and she finds herself in the hands of Col. Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn – Milk) a man who not only wants to bring down French 75 but is also so severely sexual attracted her he is almost stalking her.
As Perfidia is forced to testify against her friends in order to save herself Pat takes off with their baby daughter to begin a new life far removed from his days of political activism.
Cut to 16 years later and Pat, now know as Bob, is living in a town in the middle of nowhere that seems to what to protect the illegal immigrants and so called ‘enemies of the state’ that live within. Bob is a shadow of his former self as years of drug and alcohol addiction have left him both mentally and physically damaged.
Meanwhile his daughter, now known as Willa (Chase Infiniti – Presumed Innocent), is a surprisingly well adjusted teenager who excels at school and has been learning marital arts under the watchful eye of Sensei Sergio St. Carlos (Benicio Del Toro – Sicario). But once again their freedom (and lives) are put in jeopardy when Lockjaw turns up in town on the hunt for them with full military backing.
To be honest the general plot of One Battle After Another works pretty well. In today’s political climate in the United States a story revolving around domestic terrorism has an air of realism about it and the film itself makes a powerful companion piece for recent films like Civil War and Eddington.
The problem here is that not only does the film runs way too long but it also feels like Anderson loses control of this film at the screenwriting stage. There is way too much going on in this film and perhaps if he had been able to trim away some of the pointless side stories or redundant characters this could have been a much more serviceable film.
Perhaps the best example I can give of that issue is the fact one character at one moment meets their demise in a way that would have been satisfactory to the audience only to then be resurrected for an extra part of their story that certainly doesn’t mean to be there.
There are also parts of this film that also feels like they are contradicting themselves in a way. On way hand you have brilliant performances from Teyana Taylor, Benicio Del Toro and Chase Infiniti and on the flipside you have Leonardo DiCaprio being wasted in a role where he never gets to show his true calibre while Sean Penn gets to play one of the interesting characters of the film but is dangerously allowed to ‘over-act’ at times. Its during those times where the audience is taken out of the realism and reminded that they are watching a film.
More of a shame with Penn and DiCaprio’s characters is the fact that they are never explored properly. Lockjaw had the potential of being one of the most interesting characters to grace our screens in a long, long time – an Army officer so racist he wants to join an All-White hate group but at the same time finding himself being driven crazy by the fact that he is sexually attracted to a black woman. Sadly, though the ins and outs of his character are never thoroughly explored and he becomes a walking cliché.
Likewise, DiCaprio’s character of Bob. He is set up as an explosives expert but by the time he needs to fight to save his daughter he becomes a bumbling idiot that almost feels like he is there for comedic relief. Imagine the intrigue that could have been generated if Anderson had chosen to explore the notion of what happens when the hero wastes away but in a serious rather than a comical form. At times One Battle After Another does make some poignant remarks on modern day American society but those moments are few and far in-between in a movie that is over-bloated and seems to dangerously lose its way at times.
David’s rating Out Of 5
Kyle McGrath’s One Battle After Another Review
Some called them revolutionaries and some called them domestic terrorists but ‘France 75’ were serious about what they did. Fighting back against those they saw as fascists the lovers Bob Ferguson (Leonardo Dicaprio) & ‘Perfidia Beverly Hills’ (Teyana Taylor) were just 2 of their many members. They raided immigration centres to free detainees, bombed government buildings after hours to protest abortion laws and robbed banks to pay for it all.
But surprise surprise firing guns wildly and blowing shit up while repeating slogans and doing drugs gets somebody killed. In the aftermath with the heat coming down the revolutionaries all run. Some go into hiding like Bob does with his & Perfida’s newborn daughter. Others were gunned down by Colonel Lockjaw (Sean Penn), an extremist in his own way obsessed with Perfida. While Perfidia for her part took the third option, snitch on everybody she knew and abandoned her daughter!
It is now 16 years later and Bob still in hiding has blitzed his brain with drugs and alcohol. His daughter, Willa (Chase Infiniti) however is shaping up to be a fine, independent and strong woman. But when Lockjaw comes looking to settle unfinished business the father and daughter are separated. Bob must scrape together the few remaining braincells he has left to rescue Willa. With the help of some new friends and some old ones as well….if only he could remember all their God damn pass phrases!
Highly anticipated and thus far highly praised Paul Thomas Anderson releases ‘One Battle After Another’. Based loosely on the 1990 novel ‘Vineland’ by reclusive novelist Thomas Pynchon the film takes great liberties in adaptation much like Anderson’s earlier film ‘There Will Be Blood’ did with it’s source, Upton Sinclair’s ‘Oil!’. ‘One Battle After Another’ maintains the novel’s post-modern origins now satirising today’s age of ICE raids.
From his breakthrough sophmore film Boogie Nights (1997) Paul Thomas Anderson has been a filmmaker whose work always interests me. He’s directed films I’ve loved, some I’ve quite disliked and some which just left me scratching my head. There’s no denying however his ability to draw incredible, sometimes career best performances from his actors.
Anderson’s latest film immediately struck me as similar to the irreverent and silly style showcased in his 2014 dark comedy ‘Inherant Vice’. It wasn’t until after the screening I realised this film too had a Thomas Pynchon connection. So fans of that author’s work and Anderson’s previous adaptation will understand the craziness about to unfold. In the way ‘Inherant Vice’ was a twisting of tropes one would expect from a detective mystery ‘One Battle After Another’ plays with our expectations from an action thriller.
The movie refuses to be reigned in and freely goes in all sorts of bizarre directions. In the year 2025 much of the film’s focus leaps off the front page of newspapers from the Unitied States. An era of anti immigration crackdowns, political extremists, white supremacy and paranoia. Many viewers will see the film as as timely as a film could possibly be while some others may see it as a bit too preachy.
But the film is rarely serious in tone or messaging with the satire heavy handed. There are secret underground bunkers where evil white supremacists plot to be more evil and supposed revolutionaries become offended by “audio triggers”. There are moments which feel like something from a dark Wes Anderson story but with stronger stakes and world building. Anderson (Paul Thomas I mean) isn’t afraid to present characters who you might not like at all as the “good guys” in these extreme situations.
Sean Penn is definitely not one of these good guys and probably plays the funniest persona of his career. But he does it with such zeal that he at other times is legitimately scary even with his over the top portrait of a degenerate military extremist. Benicio del Toro plays Sensei Sergio St. Carlos, a man organising an underground rail road for illegal immigrants brings many laughs and is exactly the type of friend you’d hope to have in a pinch.
With all these diverging threads and weighty sub-plots it’s actually surprising how little Dicaprio features in much of the film. The opening sets him up as a tactically proficient bomber only to turn this on it’s head with the 16 year time skip. He’s a desperate father searching for his daughter, but like a reverse Liam Neeson he’s a man with ZERO set of skills. Half of the time struggling to comprehend what is even going on and Leonardo Dicaprio is absolutely hilarious bumbling his way through the darkness. I may not consider ‘One Battle After Another’ to be Paul Thomas Anderson’s greatest work but it is among his most entertaining.
Comedy, thrills, car chases, social – political commentary and potential Oscar winning “VistaVision” cinematography from Michael Bauman. I can’t agree the film perfectly sums up the age we live in, it’s just so cartoony at times that I don’t even believe that’s what Anderson intended. But it is sure to spark many discussions and ruffle many feathers. Best of all it manages to be a lot of fun while doing so.
Kyle’s rating Out Of 5
Average Subculture rating Out Of 5
Other Subculture Entertainment One Battle After Another Reviews
You can read our review of One Battle After Another that appeared in The Phuket News right here – https://www.thephuketnews.com/leo-co-battle-on-but-underwhelm-97830.php
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