Chances are, this won’t be the first One Battle After Another review you’ve encountered online. But hopefully, it’ll be the last.
Within the broad polis of cinema, there is a vaunted pantheon of “remote drop movies” – the kind of films that, if you were to encounter while flipping through television channels, you’d (as the name suggests) drop the remote until the credits roll. No matter how many times you’ve seen it.
This status is perhaps the most telling honour you can bestow upon a filmic work, certainly more than an Academy Award if you really think about it. And in our estimation, that’s precisely what Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another has earned.
The anticipated quality of this crackling action dramedy was never truly in question. After all, this is from the same “wunderkind” auteur behind such celebrated remote drop movies as Boogie Nights, There Will Be Blood, and, depending on who you ask, Magnolia and Punch-Drunk Love.
Throw in a career-high production budget of US$175 million, a continued love affair with the writings of Thomas Pynchon (this time with 1990’s Vineland), plus a heavyweight cast featuring fellow remote drop movie merchants Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, and Benicio del Toro; Regina Hall, Wood Harris, Teyana Taylor, as well as promising young star Chase Infiniti – and you’re practically cooking with C4.
But let’s not pretend that meticulously crafted films always translate to a good time (at least for the everyday punter). As breathtaking and impressive as Anderson’s other Pynchon adaptation, Inherent Vice, and the Daniel Day-Lewis fronted Phantom Thread are… who’s lining up for seconds? Which brings us to the thesis of all this fanfare.
In One Battle After Another, you’ll find Paul Thomas Anderson at his least metaphorical and yet – given the politics of our time – arguably his most profound. Much like Ari Aster’s Eddington, what would’ve probably felt like an outlandish caricature of the American empire’s decline is now oddly prescient. To the point you’re often left wondering, “How’d they South Park this one out in time?”
The apolitical amongst you needn’t roll your eyes, either. Rest assured, this won’t instantly become dated with finger-wagging at a specific administration; nor does it mention current factions of the ongoing culture war like MAGA or BLM. Rather, it speaks broadly to the issues with counter-revolution, racism, fascism, political hypocrisy, and so forth, in a way that late-night talk show writers and comedy staffers could only dream of.
Tonally, it’s been described as Mad Max: Fury Road meets the slapstick stylings of Buster Keaton. Though that doesn’t even begin to cover the dimensionality of what you’re in for. Tension is deftly wielded like a switchblade, interspersed with jolt-in-your-seat action sequences brought to life with wildly kinetic cinematography and genuine laughs at a freewheeling pace that, at first, feels random. Upon close inspection, however, the blended mastery reveals itself. This is what I imagine it was like to experience the inception of jazz.
As for the onscreen performances, Anderson has once again procured an embarrassment of riches. DiCaprio’s washed-up stoner of an ex-revolutionary, Bob Ferguson, is a pure pleasure to watch, crumbling under the weight of his own frustration from sprawling set piece to set piece – you kinda wish Leo dedicated more of his career to playing dishevelled losers a la Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.
Benicio del Toro’s “Sensei” Sergio St. Carlos is no less humorous for his own set of reasons, and as both an accomplice and something of a rock, is the perfect competent foil to Bob Ferguson. And while billed as the main villain, Sean Penn’s rigid and RFK Jr.-esque Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw (delightfully) feels more like another ill-intentioned stooge in the PTA gallery desperate for his own found family – in this case, the white supremacist league of the hilariously dubbed “Christmas Adventurers Club.”
The humanity of One Battle After Another lies within its female players – Teyana Taylor’s Perfidia Beverly Hills is introduced as the smouldering sexpot of a radical whose self-preservation serves as the story’s entire catalyst, but eventually paints a picture of vulnerability; Regina Hall’s Deandra is tenderly portrayed with the missing maternal instinct and an admirable willingness to endure in the face of hopelessness; while Chase Infiniti fiercely represented both the innocence of youth and an optimistic horizon for “the good fight’s” future frontline soldiers as Willa Ferguson.
With the trimming of minor fat that hampered the pacing in the opening and third act, Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another might actually be the perfect 10/10, five-star, and 100% certified magnum opus that other reviewers claim it is. And granted, there are moments in the second act where you’ll likely wish this would never end. But that’s simply how we’re calling it.
That being said, it’s certainly head and shoulders above anything released in 2025 (and the majority of the past decade, if we’re being honest).
One Battle After Another hits Aussie cinemas on Thursday, September 25th, 2025.
