The revolution may not be televised, but it is being screened in movie theaters.
One Battle After Another, the new action epic from Paul Thomas Anderson, is at once the director’s most personal and political film. It may also be the best movie of his career — and that’s saying something, considering the competition includes the likes of Boogie Nights, There Will Be Blood and Phantom Thread.
Loosely based on the Thomas Pynchon novel Vineland (Anderson’s second Pynchon adaptation after the shaggy detective comedy Inherent Vice), the film follows an ex-revolutionary named Bob who’s living on the lam with his daughter Willa.
Bob and Willa have been in hiding for the past 16 years, ever since Willa’s mother was apprehended by Steven Lockjaw, a demented military officer with aspirations of joining a secret society of white supremacists.
Willa, who’s biracial, is targeted by Lockjaw, launching Bob on a desperate mission to rescue his daughter and, in the process, reignite his long-extinguished life as a freedom fighter.
Now, I could go on describing the plot of One Battle After Another, but why bother? The film, like much of Anderson’s work, defies easy categorization or summation. It operates on its own wavelength, effortlessly flowing from white-knuckle action to laugh-out-loud absurdity to moments of emotional vulnerability.
Take Bob, an unconventional protagonist if there ever was one. Leonardo DiCaprio delivers a scruffy, self-deprecating performance as the retired rebel-turned-stoner dad, bumbling through the film’s many action sequences while looking like a cross between Che Guevara and Jeffrey Lebowski.
It’s a pretty big departure for the usually debonair DiCaprio, but it works. That’s partly thanks to DiCaprio’s comedic and dramatic range as an actor and partly thanks to Anderson’s screenplay, which foregrounds Bob’s love for Willa as the film’s emotional core and the plot’s driving force.
It also helps that One Battle After Another boasts what’s probably Anderson’s strongest ensemble since Magnolia. Benicio Del Toro, as the zen karate sensei Sergio, offers the perfect foil for DiCaprio’s madcap energy and newcomer Chase Infiniti gives a star-making performance as the headstrong Willa.
Sean Penn, meanwhile, casts an imposing shadow over the film as the twitchy, tightly wound Lockjaw, whose villainy takes shape against Anderson’s most politically charged backdrop to date. In fact, Lockjaw’s pursuit of Willa occurs under the guise of a mass anti-immigration crackdown, which eerily mirrors the ICE raids that have torn through communities throughout President Trump’s second term.
As a result, few movies have ever felt as timely as One Battle After Another, which plays out less like an adaptation of a 35-year-old novel and more like a story ripped from today’s headlines. Still, the film isn’t merely a time capsule for 2025. It’s a timeless tale of past regrets and destiny’s dealings, of generational divides and found families, of revolution and reconciliation.
Featuring some of Anderson’s most striking imagery and fully realized characters (not to mention a relentlessly pulse-pounding score by Jonny Greenwood), One Battle After Another is a total cinematic achievement. It’s easily the best movie of 2025, as well as one of the best American movies ever made — a statement that’s sure to be proven true one year after another.
