One Battle After Another – REVIEW

“Some search for battle, others are born into it…”


Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, and Chase Infiniti
Synopsis: “Bob is a washed-up revolutionary who lives in a state of stoned paranoia, surviving off-grid with his spirited and self-reliant daughter, Willa. When his evil nemesis resurfaces and Willa goes missing, the former radical scrambles to find her as both father and daughter battle the consequences of their pasts.”

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Writer/Director Paul Thomas Anderson has already cemented himself as one of the go-to directors of this era, and even if you don’t know that name, you’ve at least heard of the movies he’s made. There Will Be Blood, Punch-Drunk Love, Boogie Nights, The Master, Magnolia, Phantom Thread… He’s rarely missed, at least for me. It’s been tough to wrap my head around his latest film, One Battle After Another, and I’ve seen it twice. I gotta talk about something before that, though. First off, it’s worth noting that there are two key things I go to when it comes to Anderson’s films: the characters and the actors that bring them to life. Yes, I know movies are more than that, but have you seen any of the aforementioned movies? It has been proven time and time again that Anderson is operating in a different league as a writer, and it’s the same way as a director, mainly when it comes to working with actors. Daniel Day-Lewis, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Adam Sandler, Mark Wahlberg, Joaquin Phoenix, John C. Reilly, and even Tom Cruise all have some of their best work with Anderson as a director. When it was announced that Leonardo DiCaprio was leading PTA’s next movie, I immediately locked in. I was going to anyway, but that alone is something for the ages. Okay, now for the movie itself: One Battle After Another is massive. Massive in multiple ways. It’s almost three hours long and I think with the sprawling sixteen years that the events take place over, I’d call it an epic of sorts. You can see the plot synopsis up there, and that is the main plot of the movie, but to the point of this film being dense, I’ve barely begun picking this movie apart in terms of what it’s trying to be. Again, I’ve watched this twice. What I’m latching onto the most about One Battle After Another are events currently tied to the real world, the main takeaway being ICE and the U.S. government’s use of it. People like to say to “separate the art from the artist,” but in the case of One Battle After Another, there’s no way to do that. Seeing DiCaprio’s coked-out former freedom fighter and Sean Penn’s truly evil, white supremacist colonel constantly being compared to each other as outcasts of their government was unlike anything I had seen before, at least in something set during the modern day. There’s a lot to dive into and seemingly a lot more that I’ll pick up on during later viewings, but the thesis statement of One Battle After Another actually comes from Benicio del Toro’s character: “You know what freedom is? No fear.” That line really hit me because right now, in my home country, the government is trying to use fear to make us complacent, and maybe we have to sacrifice our safety to be able to fight. It’s something that shook me to my core, and as I’m writing this, it’s hit me even harder than it did while watching the movie. As for the other aspects, Anderson’s actors here are still amazing. This might be my favorite performance from DiCaprio since at least The Wolf of Wall Street, and it really feels like he’s going all in for Bob Ferguson, maybe in a way I’ve never seen from him before. I don’t know if I’d say it’s his best performance, but damn, it is up there for me. Sean Penn is just weird as hell here, but he’s just as captivating as DiCaprio here as this colonel that’s feeling pigeonholed into thinking he’s “pure,” in the words of the other white supremacist characters here. A lot of the supporting performers here are just as captivating. Chase Infiniti is a revelation here as Willa, it’s really a starmaking turn. Expect her to be everywhere soon. Regina Hall as another former revolutionary who helps Willa, and even without a lot of screentime, she absolutely kills it. Benicio del Toro really helps flesh out the world as a karate teacher in Bob’s town that assists Bob, but my personal favorite performance belongs to Teyana Taylor, who plays Bob’s wife and the mother of his child, Perfidia Beverly Hills. She’s only in the first 30-40 minutes, but every scene she’s in – and isn’t in – has Taylor either dominating the screen or her presence being felt throughout, even though she does not appear again after she exits the movie early on. I’m not gonna lie to you, I didn’t even imagine having a review this high. I was very ready to be in the minority on this on my first viewing, but after writing this review, I think I have to say that this is the best movie of the year. It’s maybe even the best movie of Paul Thomas Anderson’s career, which is saying something. It’s probably the quickest case of “oh, that’s a classic” since maybe… Uncut Gems? Again, One Battle After Another is massive.


Ryan’s Grade: A+