One Battle After Another | The Deight Night Review
 |
| One Battle After Another (Paul Thomas Anderson, Warner Bros, 2025) |
With four years passed since legendary director Paul Thomas Anderson brought audiences Licorice Pizza, a film that felt more like it was trying to be a Richard Linklater hang-out film than anything by Anderson, the auteur returns with his exceptional behind the camera skills to release the almost three hour epic that is One Battle After Another. Basing itself loosely on the Thomas Pynchon novel Vineland, One Battle After Another stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Bob Ferguson, a recluse former revolutionary who gives up his anti-establishment ways to look after his daughter, Willa - played by Chase Infinti, in her premiere feature film role - who he had with another former rebel, Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor) back in the glory days. When their old adversary, Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn) of the Militarised Police Unit, the MKU, begins a hunt for Willa and her father, Bob is thrust once again into the world of anti-government terrorism and his limits are tested in this neo-noir behemoth.
There's a lot to be said about directors who are given too much control over their projects and don't have a money man by their side telling them that some scenes need to be cut for the sake of the film's profitability. This power is often given to the directors of Paul Thomas Anderson's high regard. Not much is known about Christopher Nolan's upcoming The Odyssey, but its safe to say that it will most likely hit the three hour mark at the very least. With One Battle After Another, Anderson's final word has paid off as despite its two hour and forty minute runtime, it runs at a lightning speed where it barely feels like two hours, with one particularly action packed segment in the middle that really gets the film moving excitingly. This is because no moment in the film is wasted, there's no meandering shots of nothing-ness, every single detail of the film tells you something about the story and where it's headed or the characters and their motivations. Once the film is over, you feel as though you know all the main cast intimately, their goals, their flaws, even the skeletons they keep in their closets. As a result, One Battle After Another is one of the most characterfully rich masterpieces of the year, maybe even the decade so far.
Giving characters room to breathe doesn't necessarily result in a masterpiece if the writing and acting aren't there. That's not an issue that One Battle After Another has. In true neo-noir fashion, the cast is filled with complicated and fully three dimensional people that bring an extra level of depth and reality to this already intriguing and entertaining saga. Leonardo DiCaprio's Bob is a depressed and paranoid alcoholic and drug abuser who's sole purpose in life is his daughter, though not an atypical form of protagonist for a film such as this, the deeper levels of the character make him more unique compared to the plethora of alcoholic world weary heroes of the noir genre. It becomes clear that Bob's terrorist activities are merely a way for him to get closer to his lover, Perfidia, and to give him a sense of belonging rather than him having any sort of based political opinions. Similarly with Sean Penn's Colonel Lockjaw, his actions are completely guided by a sense of wanting to belong and his loneliness is more and more obvious throughout the film. In this way, these two are reflections of each other and that dichotomy is a driving thematic force of the film. Fittingly, these two characters are given the strongest performances.
It's clear that DiCaprio is not content with just the one Oscar and intends very much for this to be his second win. His performance as Bob Ferguson is at some points hilarious and at others is completely endearing, in both cases, DiCaprio's performance keeps your eyes locked to the screen. Though it's possibly controversial to say that he is somewhat outshone by his counterpart, Sean Penn. Penn gives a portrait of a truly broken man who's willing to sink really rather low to be accepted as the decorated officer he is. He's mostly an intimidating presence, a committed lawman who doesn't take any nonsense from anyone, but he's often shown as very vulnerable and anxious when his militant mask begins to slip. Penn is no stranger to playing military types, but Lockjaw may be one of his finest achievements to date and is one of the strongest Oscar contentions of his career. The two leads are joined by an equally brilliant cast that also includes a subtly modest performance from Benicio Del Toro, but Penn and DiCaprio are who audiences will be writing home about.
One Battle After Another is not just an engrossing, deep story but a work of cinematic art as well. Especially when presented in VistaVision (as Anderson intended), the film is a sun kissed, vibrant canvas painted by a master of their craft. It's an absolute pleasure to watch on the big screen, with colours and lighting that are modern and effective but also reminiscent of a classic from the 1970s. The film's also accompanied by a Jonny Greenwood score that brings eclectic life to every scene its placed with. It's superbly subtle at points, with one long segment being scored by the rapid plucking of a piano, but isn't afraid to bring in a grand orchestral tune here and there for the more emotional beats. In short, the film truly is firing on all cylinders and very much needs to be brought up in the same conversation as the 2026 Oscars in pretty much every category.
As Paul Thomas Anderson's Tenth feature film, One Battle After Another could very well be his best, it's certainly his greatest achievement since There Will Be Blood. With a story that tackles a rich buffet of pertinent themes like paranoia, parenthood, legacy and belonging, some of the best performances of the year (and some actors' careers), beautiful cinematography and directing as well as a phenomenal score, One Battle After Another really is one of the best films of the year and continues Warner Bros. legendary recent run of fantastic films in 2025. It starts off the Oscar season at an all time high that's going to be hard to top or even maintain.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
