“One Battle After Another” (2025)
With “One Battle After Another,” filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson has made his best film in nearly 25 years.
This film manages to be entirely epic while also telling a human story with an incredible cast of characters. And while it is mostly a drama, the story also has some memorable laugh-out-loud moments.
“One Battle After Another” opens with the work of the French 75, a left-leaning group of activists who go to violent extremes to advocate for human life and human rights.
While you may come to “One Battle After Another” for Leonardo DiCaprio, who does give a solid performance per usual, it is the full cast that keeps you watching. Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall and Teyana Taylor all give some of their career-best performances.
DiCaprio, Hall and Taylor all play members of the French 75. DiCaprio’s Pat and Taylor’s quickly turn their activism into a sexual relationship, which results in the birth of their child. Their life is turned upside down when one of the French 75’s missions goes south and Perfidia finds herself captured by the authorities (including Penn, who plays the menacing Col. Steven J. Lockjaw).
Pat and the baby are forced to flee, taking on new identities as Bob and Willa Ferguson.
When Lockjaw sees an exciting career opportunity pop up for him 15 years later, he decides to tie up some loose ends, namely seeking out Bob and Willa.
As I mentioned before, all of the older actors are absolutely fantastic in “One Battle After Another.” But for me, the real star of the show is Chase Infiniti, who makes her film debut in this movie as the teenage Willa.
She gives every scene she’s in a healthy dose of reality, and you can see the mental work her character is processing as the movie unfolds in every little facial expression.
No spoilers, but that mic drop moment set to Tom Petty’s “American Girl” at the end of the film is one of my favorite movie endings of the year.
I had the pleasure of seeing “One Battle After Another” twice, the first in IMAX for a crowded press/public screening and the second time during a 70mm run with a sizable but smaller Sunday morning crowd. The latter experience took me back to my college days, when I transitioned from going to church every Sunday when I lived with my parents to going to my college town’s independent theater every Sunday to see whatever was playing.
Seeing “One Battle After Another” in 70mm with the score leading into the showing was a deeply religious experience for me at my church of cinema. PTA’s films have played a critical role in my love of cinema, with “Magnolia” and “Punch-Drunk Love” being all-time favorites that I saw in my formative high school years and revisited often.
This particular 70mm experience has helped reinvigorate my love for cinema, and while I may have taken a few weeks off from reviews due to life being a lot, I am ready to come back with a vengeance.
I highly recommend seeing “One Battle After Another” in the biggest format at your disposal, definitely on the big screen.