For nearly three decades, acclaimed director Paul Thomas Anderson has consistently delivered cinematic masterpieces, earning critical adoration and numerous Oscar nominations, yet a win has remained elusive. His films, from the sprawling Boogie Nights to intricate character studies, have been hailed as modern American epics. Now, with One Battle After Another, Anderson might finally break his Oscar drought.
Adapted from Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland, this feverish parable of insurgency and inheritance is being lauded as his most politically relevant and emotionally resonant work in years. And after experiencing it, we can confirm the buzz is absolutely warranted: this is the film that could mark Anderson’s triumphant return to the awards stage.
Film Details: One Battle After Another (English)
- Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
- Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Teyana Taylor, Sean Penn, Chase Infiniti, Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall
- Runtime: 162 minutes
- Synopsis: After 16 years, an insidious enemy resurfaces, compelling a group of former revolutionaries to reunite and rescue the daughter of one of their own.
At its core, the film presents a surprisingly traditional dramatic triangle. Leonardo DiCaprio delivers a compelling performance as Pat Calhoun, a low-level explosives expert within a radical militant group. His dynamic partner, Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor), is the true driving force of their movement – a restless, charismatic femme fatale who even fires a machine gun in her ninth month of pregnancy to ‘let off steam’. Opposing them is Colonel Steven Lockjaw (Sean Penn), an oily, authoritative caricature plagued by mommy issues and the undeserved confidence typical of an ethno-fascist boys’ club.
Fast forward sixteen years after their initial conflict, and Perfidia is either missing or AWOL. Pat, now going by Bob, has transformed into a burnt-out single father living in a quiet town. His revolutionary zeal has been replaced by a haze of weed smoke and mounting paranoia, as he spends his afternoons re-watching The Battle of Algiers. His daughter, Willa (the truly revelatory Chase Infiniti), embodies her mother’s discipline, yet none of her father’s disarray. Their complex relationship forms the poignant heart of the film.
DiCaprio portrays Bob with a unique blend of humility, making him both deeply ridiculous and profoundly pitiable. He’s a single father whose radical past has faded into routine and inertia. The film embraces him in a non-sentimental way, allowing DiCaprio’s sharp comic timing and physical awkwardness to highlight Bob’s flaws without excusing them. In stark contrast, Infiniti’s Willa is sharp, meticulously trained, and possesses an adult-like self-possession. Her education comes courtesy of a local sensei (Benicio del Toro), whose calm, straightforward moral guidance provides the film with its most compelling ethics: that steadiness itself can be a powerful form of resistance.
Anderson has long been fascinated by the works of Thomas Pynchon, previously adapting Inherent Vice with painstaking accuracy. Here, he distills the paranoia of Vineland into a film that cleverly avoids explicit political buzzwords. Instead of direct reportage or contemporary commentary, Anderson draws from the satirical and paranoiac traditions of post-war fiction, conveying the film’s political anatomy through subtle implication and powerful imagery.
The film subtly addresses themes like immigration raids, the normalization of militarized police violence in small towns, and the ritualized cruelties of fabricated patriotic fraternities. None of these elements are overtly stated, yet the film masterfully illustrates how these societal habits shape character and civic life. By refraining from naming specific policies or figures, Anderson creates space to dramatize how power operates on a minute, even domestic, scale, laying siege to environments as seemingly innocuous as a high school prom.
As a visual spectacle, One Battle After Another is simply breathtaking. While Anderson’s ambitions have sometimes veered into artistic indulgence, here they feel entirely purposeful. Jonny Greenwood’s score pulses like an anxious heart monitor, and Michael Bauman’s sweeping wide-format cinematography transforms even the rolling California hills into profound metaphors. Yet, despite this distinguished craftsmanship, the film never feels overly polished. It is wonderfully messy, genuinely funny, occasionally absurd, and undeniably vibrant.
The film frequently elicits laughter, with DiCaprio stumbling through much of it in his bathrobe, and Penn preening like a reptilian villain. Yet, the humor is never superficial. Moments of pure absurdity – such as DiCaprio’s scene-stealing mid-escape meltdown during a phone call with a particularly stubborn ‘Comrade Josh’ – are interwoven with instances of genuine, terrifying anxiety. Anderson appears to have rediscovered the anarchic comedy that undercurrents films like Boogie Nights and Magnolia, now sharpened by wisdom and the experiences of fatherhood.
Occasionally, the film’s ambitious scope shows its seams. It sometimes indulges in digressions that extend the runtime and momentarily challenge coherence. There are moments when one senses an eagerness to include every imaginative detail. However, these ‘indulgences’ are, in a perverse way, consistent with the film’s overarching thesis: political life is a cluttered, often recursive journey, and every act of insurgency invariably leaves behind a trail of detritus.
What binds the film’s diverse elements together is a steadfast focus on the inner landscape of commitment. As a father of four, Anderson seems to be wrestling with his own anxieties about the broken world he is passing on to the next generation. In this context, the title One Battle After Another doesn’t sound like a war cry, but rather a quiet acknowledgment of the persistent, often exasperating, labor of ongoing resistance. It speaks to the relentless churn of cultural conflicts and the thankless, yet vital, work of parenting, where every small skirmish feels like part of an endless campaign.
Anderson has explored the lives of oil barons, cult leaders, porn stars, and fashion designers, but rarely has he addressed the present with such directness. This is a work of furious implication, sharp enough to sting and profound enough to feel genuinely dangerous.
You can catch One Battle After Another playing in theatres now.