One Battle After Another (15)
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tony Goldwyn, Teyana Taylor, Chase Infiniti, Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro, Regina Hall, Wood HarrisGenre: Thriller
Author(s): Paul Thomas Anderson
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Release Date: 26/09/2025
Running Time: 162mins
Country: US
Year: 2025
Bob is head over heels in love with revolutionary Perfidia and they carry out a series of daring crimes, pursued by Colonel Steven J Lockjaw. Perfidia falls pregnant and gives birth to a spirited and self-reliant daughter. Sixteen years later, Willa and her stoned and paranoid father are estranged from Perfidia and living off the grid. Lockjaw and his men track down the pair and Bob is forced to rediscover his revolutionary past to protect Willa, aided by the girl's martial arts sensei Sergio St Carlos.
LondonNet Film Review
One Battle After Another (15) Film Review from LondonNet
Paul Thomas Anderson is one of the most critically acclaimed filmmakers working today. Seven of his nine feature films have been lavished with multiple Oscar nominations, including Boogie Nights, Magnolia, There Will Be Blood, The Master, Inherent Vice, Phantom Thread and Licorice Pizza. He has personally accrued eight nominations for his direction and screenwriting, but is yet to claim a coveted golden statuette for impeccable work behind the camera…
That losing streak is likely to change with One Battle After Another, a consummately choreographed action thriller loosely based on Thomas Pynchon’s novel Vineland about a ragtag group of activists fighting oppression. Anderson assembles an impressive ensemble cast led by Leonardo DiCaprio as a paranoid, stoner ex-revolutionary who cannot recall the correct response to the code-worded question “What time is it?”
In one of the funniest scenes, his dishevelled hero – clad in a dressing down – berates the person posing the security prompt and demands they afford him leniency because his brain is fried. The joke overstays its welcome, one of a few minor niggles that prevent Anderson’s madcap jaunt from flirting with perfection. Virtuoso sequences conceived with cinematographer Michael Bauman include a rooftop escape that culminates in a literal fall from grace and a visually stunning car chase conducted on hypnotically undulating roads. Jonny Greenwood’s nerve-jangling score ramps up the intensity.
Members of the French 75 radical group led by firebrand Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor) stage a daring raid on the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego, located close to the Mexican border. Perfidia celebrates in the bed of comrade Bob Ferguson (DiCaprio). Grizzled US Army Colonel Steven J Lockjaw (Sean Penn) is entrusted with neutralising the revolutionaries and he nurtures an erotically charged fixation with Perfidia.
Sixteen years later, Bob and teenage daughter Willa (Chase Infiniti) are living off the grid when they are targeted by Lockjaw, who is seeking membership of a covert white nationalist movement called the Christmas Adventurers Club. Bob haphazardly rediscovers his revolutionary past, aided by martial arts sensei Sergio St Carlos (Benicio del Toro) and former French 75 associate Deandra (Regina Hall).
One Battle After Another is a politically charged reflection of contemporary concerns, which makes impressively light work of an ambitious 162-minute running time. Coolly assured in its technical execution, Anderson’s picture entertains, enthrals and provokes timely debate about immigrant scapegoating. There are lulls in the opening chapter but the twisted central love triangle gains dramatic momentum as sins of the past are revisited upon Bob and his compatriots. DiCaprio dials into the offbeat humour of his misfit’s life-or-death situation and Taylor makes an indelible impact with limited screen time. Penn’s scowling, emotionally pent up antagonist unravels with masterful precision. There will be blood spattered across his downfall.
– Jo Planter
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London Cinemas Showing One Battle After Another
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UK and Irish Cinemas Showing One Battle After Another
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