Critically acclaimed director Paul Thomas Anderson’s tenth feature film, One Battle After Another, hit theaters on September 26, 2025, to overwhelmingly positive reviews from both fans and critics. The film, a comedy-adventure set across California and Texas, follows ex-revolutionary Bob Ferguson (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his daughter Willa Ferguson (Chase Infiniti) as they try to evade their old nemesis, Colonel Lockjaw (Sean Penn), and escape the consequences of Bob’s revolutionary past. During his radical days, Bob committed acts of terrorism and violent protest in pursuit of his and his partner’s fight against oppression. After sixteen years of living off the grid with his daughter, Bob is found once again by Lockjaw. Now paranoid and addicted to multiple substances, Bob’s stability begins to unravel.
To summarize the plot briefly: the first act depicts Bob and his partner Perfidia (played by Teyana Taylor) engaging in the actions that ignite the film’s central conflict. They rob banks to fund their operations, rescue immigrants from camps, and blow up government buildings, among other things. The rest of the film unfolds as a series of consequences for those actions. When Deandra (Regina Hall), another former revolutionary, learns that Lockjaw has resurfaced, she takes Willa to a safehouse in the desert. However, the safehouse is soon raided by Lockjaw’s men, and Willa is kidnapped. Courageous and strong-willed, Willa manages to escape. Meanwhile, Bob goes to great lengths to find her, and in the end, he succeeds. The film concludes with Willa receiving a letter from her mother, Perfidia, expressing hope for reconciliation.
The film explores several themes, the most prominent being the importance of rebelling against oppression rather than remaining complacent. However, this is where I feel conflicted. To me, the film doesn’t strike a clear balance between right and wrong. At times, it seems as though Paul Thomas Anderson is suggesting that violent protest is a justifiable means of achieving political change. In my opinion, this could have been avoided if the movie had shown the extent of the government’s oppression, which would have given the revolutionaries’ violence more weight. Instead, it feels as if the revolutionaries are trying to justify their extreme actions by claiming oppression, without the audience ever truly seeing the depth of that oppression. The violence ends up feeling unnecessary. While the film portrays them as martyrs for a noble cause, I believe the cause itself might be noble—but not the lengths they go to in fighting for it.
One Battle After Another features stunning cinematography and outstanding performances, both trademarks of Paul Thomas Anderson’s work. Sean Penn delivers an exceptional performance as Colonel Lockjaw, and Chase Infiniti is phenomenal as Willa Ferguson in her big-screen debut. The writing is strong overall, despite a few uneven moments in the first act, and the soundtrack is perfectly matched to the tone of the film.
Overall, I’m not quite as captivated by this movie as many others seem to be, but I still thoroughly enjoyed it. I would give One Battle After Another four out of five stars.
