One Battle After Another, Paul Thomas Anderson’s action thriller adapted from Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland, is earning praise as one of the year’s standout films. It’s sharply crafted and relentlessly paced, though the script sometimes struggles to balance its sprawling ensemble, often giving the supporting cast richer material than its lead.
The story follows the French 75, a resistance movement led by bomb expert Bob Ferguson—formerly Pat, Ghetto Pat, and Rocket Man—played by Leonardo DiCaprio. His crew raids immigration detention centers and targets anti‑abortion politicians. Teyana Taylor is riveting as Perfidia Beverly Hills, whose devotion to “living without fear” anchors the film’s emotional core. Yet the screenplay invests so heavily in her mystique that Bob’s own arc feels comparatively thin.
Among the French 75, Benicio del Toro stands out as a source of humor and unexpected wisdom. His lived‑in, philosophical presence grounds the group’s chaos and gives the movement a sense of history the film benefits from.
Their adversary is Colonel Thomas Lockjaw—played with chilling intensity by Sean Penn—the military leader of Mankind United. The script hints at a psychologically fraught past between Perfidia and Lockjaw but rarely explores it.
The title proves apt: one battle after another unfolds, literal and ideological. Years of resentment and clashing worldviews drive the narrative, even as Bob’s life shifts toward something more domestic in his relationship with his daughter Willa, played by Chase Infiniti.
Infiniti emerges as the film’s breakout star. She brings a grounded, unaffected presence that cuts through the chaos, giving Willa a mix of vulnerability, defiance, and quiet intelligence. Her scenes with DiCaprio deepen the film’s emotional stakes, and Anderson seems to recognize it — the camera lingers on her like a performer stepping into her moment.
DiCaprio gets some of the film’s most striking close‑ups, capturing a man caught between swagger and exhaustion, especially in scenes where Bob shuffles around in a bathrobe, smoking pot like an adult who never outgrew his own rebellion. These moments are funny, but they also reveal a man hiding fear and uncertainty behind bravado — one of the few times the film lets us sit with him long enough to feel the weight of his choices.
And those choices are complicated. The film celebrates Bob’s passion for the movement, but it also shows the cost — particularly the emotional distance it creates between him, Perfidia, and Willa. Even if you believe in a cause with your whole heart, sacrificing your family leaves a bruise the film doesn’t fully interrogate. That unresolved tension lingers across the ensemble, with each character shaped — and trapped — by the choices or circumstances that defined their lives.
Meanwhile, Lockjaw’s anti‑immigration crusades elevate him within U.S. security agencies, earning him a place in the Christmas Adventurers, an elite white supremacist group. His stylist crafts a strikingly unsettling look that Penn embraces with unnerving precision.
I’m not usually a fan of long car‑chase sequences, but the one here is exceptional — a tightly constructed, nerve‑rattling set piece that earns its length. Cinematographer Michael Bauman shoots it with clarity and momentum, making it feel like the true climax of the story rather than a distraction.
One Battle After Another is gripping, intelligent, and heartfelt, even if its script doesn’t always give its central character the depth he deserves. Still, its ambition, energy, and standout supporting performances — especially those of Taylor, Penn, del Toro, and Infiniti — make it well worth seeing.
For KSQD’s Film Gang, this is Susan Lovegren.
