One Battle After Another

by Mike McGranaghan

One Battle After Another is a throwback to a time when directors weren’t afraid to make overtly political films and major studios weren’t afraid to release them. This latest effort from Paul Thomas Anderson isn’t really about Left and Right so much as it’s a snapshot of where our country is these days. You’ll be able to tell a lot about a person based on who they think the hero of the story is. While the underlying ideas may border on the incendiary, Anderson never forgets to entertain. Like Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, David Fincher’s Fight Club, or Robert Altman’s Nashville, this is a picture that you can have a good time watching and thinking about.

Leonardo DiCaprio gives another wonderfully textured performance as Bob Ferguson, a former member of a far-left revolutionary group called the French 75. He falls in love with another member, Perfidia (Teyana Taylor), who bolts shortly after giving birth to their daughter. Sixteen years later, Bob is burned out from drugs and booze, and the teenage Willa (Chase Infiniti) knows virtually nothing about her mother. Willa’s life becomes endangered when a figure from Bob and Perfidia’s past, Col. Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn), comes looking for her. With help from friend/sensei Sergio (Benicio del Toro), Bob attempts to reunite with Willa after she’s whisked away by the still-in-existence French 75.

Now, that’s a nutshell version of the plot. One Battle After Another works extremely well as a thriller about a father trying to keep his daughter safe. There are plenty of exciting scenes, including one of the most uniquely-staged car chases I’ve ever seen. Comedic moments are here, too. Bob has trouble remembering all the secret codes from his revolutionary days, which leads to a lot of humorous frustration on his part. Although Lockjaw is a very menacing figure, Penn inserts bits of body language that make his ultra-macho demeanor slightly buffoonish. He’s funny because he’s scary and scary because he’s funny.

The context around all of this is what makes the film special. It’s important to understand that Perfidia is Black and Willa is therefore biracial. Lockjaw is bigoted, working to gain admittance into a group of powerful, influential white supremacists. As part of his attempts to find Willa, he leads an immigration raid in a sanctuary city – one where Sergio is part of an underground network dedicated to protecting immigrants. If you expect a polemic knowing that, rest assured Anderson doesn’t go for a bludgeoning approach. His sympathies are clearly with the revolutionaries, but he lets his message come through the plot rather than through overt messaging.

One Battle After Another shows us something that looks uncomfortably familiar – a world where military and law enforcement are often employed to trample the rights of minorities, or at least to protect white interests. Setting Bob’s quest to guarantee Willa’s safety against that backdrop goes a long way toward defining the stakes. Bob and Willa are not currently active revolutionaries; nevertheless, they find themselves having to take on a system that makes the rules, stacking the deck in the process.

Again, the political content and the entertainment content compliment each other. The movie’s characters are beautifully drawn, and even more beautifully portrayed by the actors. DiCaprio, Del Toro, and Penn are amazing, Infiniti is a star in the making, and there are excellent supporting performances from Taylor and Regina Hall as another French 75 member. Despite running 158 minutes, the time flies by because of how masterfully Anderson paces his tale. He gets the mixture of comedy, action, drama, and political commentary just right.

For those reasons, One Battle After Another is certain to be one of 2025’s defining motion pictures.

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