In One Battle After Another, Paul Thomas Anderson delivers an American epic that is both timely and timeless. The film holds a mirror to expose the darkness of America while also highlighting not just the humanity that yearns to save our country’s soul but the idea of how being a revolutionary can be passed down generation to generation. Anderson’s latest is a masterpiece firing on all cylinders to deliver one of the most important films of the decade.

The discussion of how timely One Battle After Another is will dominate the opening weekend of the film’s release, but the themes of Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film are not simply just timely, it’s timeless. Anderson, along with Andy Jurgensen’s effervescent editing, pace the film brilliantly as the film consistently feels as if the audience is being thrust into the future while it’s actually present day. The opening sequence feels entirely lifted from what we see on the news daily, especially here in Los Angeles, that when the story jumps sixteen years later, you’d expect things to be better, more ‘resolved,’ yet just as we’ve grown unfortunately accustomed to in real life, things have not improved just become embedded in everyday life. While time has gone on and things have changed drastically over the sixteen-year gap, things have also changed very little. This is the brilliance of Anderson’s loose adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s ‘Vineland,’ as he uses the timelessness of Pynchon’s words but makes it all his own vision, just as he did with Inherent Vice. 

Despite being a reimagining of a famous book, it’s best to go into One Battle After Another with as little information as possible on terms of plot or even themes. The film will surely be labeled and discussed as speaking to the moment given how the political landscape has exploded just over the last week; Anderson’s film is not a preachy, cautionary tale, but a fiery call to action against an authoritarian institution. The prologue starts at the Otay Mesa Immigration Detention Center at the United States-Mexico Border, as Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor) scopes out the internment camp below. She’s studying and preparing to strike to set liberate around 275 migrants who are held captive inside. Meanwhile in the distance, hiding, Ghetto Pat/Rocketman (Leonardo DiCaprio), is tasked with distracting the guards, on a signal to use fireworks and flares. Perfidia states the mission of the French 75 as ensuring people have “free bodies, free choices, and are free from fucking fear.” A mantra that speaks to the prologue, the balance of the film in present day and overflows in the sentiment in America right now. When Perfidia comes face to face with the master of operations at the encampment, Colonel Steven Lockjaw (Sean Penn), she doesn’t back down, however, she doesn’t just violently confront him or take him hostage. She’s made it clear anyone who she deems deservingof violence, she has no problem acting on it. However, with Lockjaw, she wants to show just how much control she has over him. While he’s clearly a blatant white supremacist, he’s unable to control his desires; while he’s utterly disgusted and humiliated, he’s also entirely turned on, however, in a fetishizing way that Anderson perfectly captures, a powerful man completely hindered by his degrading desires. After the operation, Lockjaw becomes utterly consumed with the activity of the French 75 and tracking them as they attack the government organizations that he holds so dear in upholding.  Anderson brilliantly unlocks the ying-yang of the push-pull between the people risking it all for a revolution and a ‘leader’ of the very government institution preventing it. All of the conflicting elements within society are on some level intertwined. 

Perfidia eventually gives birth to a baby girl, Charlene, and Pat tells Perfidia that they need to put their revolutionary work behind them to keep stable and safe to start raising their family, but she just can’t stop. Perfidia has that fire, desire, and passion needing to chase the thrill of being a radical, being part of something bigger. There’s an interesting discussion within this of a woman wanting to continue the fight while her male partner wants to be more ‘practical’ staying with the child. Perfidia is one of the leaders of the French 75, of course she doesn’t want to be a stay-at-home mom, she wants to bring radical change to the world. She never stops and eventually, in the middle of a bank robbery gone wrong, she’s captured by the police in one of the most thrilling sequences of Anderson’s career. With Jonny Greenwood’s evocative score combined with cinematographer Michael Bauman’s claustrophobic tracking shot, the fear is palpable as Perfidia is in a wheelchair with law enforcement men surrounding her, towering over her. 

Here we cut to sixteen years later, Ghetto Pat and Charlene are now Bob and Willa (Chase Infiniti) in a sort of witness protection program run by the French 75. While Bob is still a revolutionary at heart, he’s much more focused on being a single dad and protecting his daughter. One of the best parts of the film is the palpable love both Bob and Willa have for one another. Willa knows nearly nothing of her father’s past and thinks some of his rules are strange quirks of him being a hippie, but she has a deep care for her father, it’s endearing. Infiniti delivers a star-is-born performance, there are movies before her debut and movies after her debut, where she should have her pick of masterful projects. Bob keeps a simple life and hopes to keep Willa out of the price for his and her mother’s past until it becomes clear Lockjaw has been tipped off to Bob’s whereabouts and has set his sights on Willa. 

Throughout all of his films, original or adapted stories, Anderson’s gift has always been to bring characters to life on screen who persevere through extraordinary circumstances. One Battle After Another features a slew of characters dealing with the hideous underbelly of America’s insidious organizations. In the Christmas Adventurers Club, a secret organization of white nationalists, we have a pitch-perfect Tony Goldwyn and James Downey. Regina Hall is an old comrade from the French 75, Deandra, who has limited screentime but delivers one of her most tender performances to date. Benicio Del Toro rounds out the company as a karate instructor, Sensei Sergio, a role that allows him to ooze coolness. Penn as Lockjaw could easily be a cheesy, cartoonish villain yet between Anderson’s sharp writing and Penn’s execution of the shameful, blunt, cruel ‘man,’ Lockjaw is the perfect encapsulation of some of the men operating in our government today without being too on the nose. There is no better ensemble on screen this year and in a film that utilizes every actor perfectly. 

Yet despite as heavy as it is, the heart of the film relies on the love between a father and daughter. DiCaprio and Infiniti are absolutely magnetic together. With such an epic, sprawling story to tell, the father-daughter dynamic never gets lost, which is a testament to Anderson but is successful because of their performances at the soul of it all. Their bond is palpable as it grows stronger, even when they’re offscreen from each other. Infiniti not only holds her own in every scene with the legendary DiCaprio, cementing herself as a legend in the making, but she grows Willa as her father’s past and her own future is unfolding in front of her eyes. Anderson has written Willa to be the know-it-all teenager we all once were with the planting of pieces of her father, and mother, within her; it’s not just a rebellious teenage phase, she’s inheriting a generational run of revolutionaries from her bloodline. First Reformed has become a defining film for me as a parent in the modern age; what is the world we brought our children into? It’s a unique kind of guilt for wanting to have a family but at the same time, the world these kids will live in… it feels cruel to have delivered to them. 

The film touches on a key theme that the time for a revolution isn’t now, it was decades ago, and with the lead female character being a teenager, there’s a beautiful sentiment of how the children are leading the revolution we didn’t succeed with. As a parent, you hope your children carry on your passionate feelings you may have let go of to take care of them and keep them safe, just as we sort of see Bob struggling with. An additional, important layer on the film has to be Anderson’s personal tie in with Bob, as a father to mixed-race children himself. In what could easily be a political odyssey, Anderson brilliantly balances the palpable fear of everyday Americans. The scope and size of the story, the action, and even the VistaVision of it all never gets in the way of the human story at the center. 

One Battle After Another speaks to the moment with a hopeful battle cry that we all need. Anderson exposes the darkness of America while also highlighting not just the humanity that yearns to save our country’s soul but the idea of how being a revolutionary can be passed down generation to generation. 

Grade: A+

Oscars Prospects:
Likely: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Lead Actor (Leonardo DiCaprio), Best Supporting Actor (Sean Penn), Best Cinematography, Best Sound, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score
Should be Considered: Best Lead Actress (Chase Infiniti), Best Supporting Actress (Teyana Taylor), Best Costume Design

Release Date: September 26, 2025
Where to Watch: In Theaters