A One Mann’s Movies review of “One Battle After Another” (2025, 4*, 15).
Paul Thomas Anderson has followed up “Licorice Pizza” from 2021 with this very different action comedy-thriller. I described “Licorice Pizza” as “Like going downhill on an out-of-control toboggan” and I could use the identical title for this film! Because it is totally frenetic; at times totally unhinged; but after nearly 3 hours of breathless action it leaves you feeling like you’ve seen a “proper movie”.
Bob the Movie Man Rating(s):
Plot:
Pat Calhoun (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Perfidia (Teyana Taylor) are members of the leftist “French 75” terrorist group on the West Coast of America, sticking it to the government machine. But the vengeful, but also fascinated, Col. Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn) is hard on their heels. When Perfidia is caught and presumed killed, it is left for Pat (now renamed as Bob Ferguson) to be smuggled away by his organisation to bring up their young daughter, Willa, alone. But 16 years later, Bob and Willa (now played by Chase Infiniti) are discovered and forced to run again.
Certification:
UK: 15; US: R. (From the BBFC web site: “Strong language, sex references, violence, references to sexual violence”.)
Talent:
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Teyana Taylor, Regina Hall, Alana Haim, Wood Harris, Shayna McHayle, Paul Grimstad, Sean Penn, Chase Infiniti, Benicio Del Toro, John Hoogenakker.
Directed by: Paul Thomas Anderson.
Written by: Paul Thomas Anderson (inspired by the novel “Vineland” by Thomas Pynchon)..
Running Time: 2h 41m.
Summary:
Positives:
- It’s the sort of screwball, vulgar action/comedy that we haven’t seen in a long while.
- Sean Penn and Chase Infiniti are the stand-out performances in a strong field.
- The finale car chase is one for the ‘GOAT’ list.
Negatives:
- Overly intrusive music by Jonny Greenwood
- At over 160 minutes, I felt my attention waning a bit in the middle section.
Full Review of “One Battle After Another”:
Full-throttle action and laughs.
From the word go, this film delivers strongly. Bob (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Perfidia (Teyana Taylor) spring hundreds of illegal immigrants from a facility on the Mexican border, with Col. Lockjaw (Sean Penn) both embarrassed and engorged by Perfidia in the process! The pace just never lets up from then as we see the terrorist group (containing well-named participants like Mae West (L.P.’s pop-star turns actress Alana Haim) and – the Bond Girl that never was – ‘junglepussy’ (Shayna McHayle)) engaged in all sorts of heinous acts before a fateful bank heist.
There is a moment’s lull, before we whisk forwards 16 years to another battleground in the ‘sanctuary city’ of Baktan Cross where mayhem breaks out again. This time it includes Bob’s ‘sensei’ and fellow terrorist Sergio St. Carlos (Benicio Del Toro) delivering a terrific – and unusual for him – comedic turn.
Laughs a-plenty.
From the trailer, although there are gags in there such as Bob’s drug-addled inability to remember passwords, I didn’t think the film would be as funny as it was. It smashed the ‘6-laughs’ test for a comedy. In particular, Sean Penn’s Col. Lockjaw is a fabulous comedy character, strutting and preening his way through the film. His claim to have been “reversed-raped” by a “semen-demon” was one of the comedy high-spots.
Bullitt for the 2020’s.
Somewhere, someone probably has a collated list of the movie’s best-ever car-chases. “Bullitt” will definitely be on there. “The Italian Job” (the original). Perhaps “Diamonds are Forever” and “Goldfinger”. But this film should surely make its way on there, and with a high placing. The finale, filmed on the undulating hills of Texas Dip, in Borrego Springs, California, is a masterclass in automobile movie magic. The cars soar over the rises with the camera (presumably drone-powered) dipping and swooping along with them in a brilliant fashion. The car stunts, when they happen, are also really skilfully executed and thrilling to watch.
Oscar buzz?
The movie has had such a buzz online that it must surely garner some awards attention: I’d be very surprised not to see it in the list of the 10 Best Picture nominees, if not a front-runner. But where else might the awards fall?
DiCaprio is a possible for Best Actor, since it’s a genius comedic turn from him. But I think a more likely shoe-in in the male acting categories would be Sean Penn in Supporting. It will have been 17 years since the double-Oscar winner last won (for “Milk” in 2009) but his characterisation as Lockjaw is so memorable here that he’s hard to ignore as a strong contender.
Among the actresses, Teyana Taylor gives a terrific performance as Perfidia. But it is the relative newcomer, Chase Infiniti as Willa, who – for me – really set the screen alight in every scene she was in. A tense ‘test’ scene with Lockjaw surprisingly turns into a battle of acting heavyweights in which I’m not sure who won!
Intrusive plinky-plonky music.
My single biggest complaint about the film was with the soundtrack by Jonny Greenwood. In my book, a soundtrack should very much be visible and present for highly dramatic scenes where you are meant to FEEL the music… ‘goosebump times’. “The Map Room” in “Raiders of the Lost Ark” being one such example. For the rest of the time, the music -if required at all – should be like a subtle wallpaper… adding to the texture of the film without you really knowing it’s there.
This could not be claimed for the soundtrack of OBAA. Jonny Greenwood just stuffs the whole film with some of the most intrusively irritating music I’ve noticed in a long time. Much of it is of the plinky-plonky atonal piano type and I found it hugely distracting.
Tired… very very tired!
I should point out that I went to see this loooong film after a very long day yesterday at the London Film Festival (press-week showings). I’d seen three films already during the day and my eyes were red and sore already. So I was perhaps not in the best place for viewing another, 160-minute-plus, film. As such, I did find my attention waning a little during the middle portion of the film, even though it was so action-packed that it never really FELT like a nearly three-hour film.
Part of me though wished that Paul Thomas Anderson might have done a ‘trilogy’ treatment on this fascination set of characters, treating us to three 90-minute movies instead.
Summary Thoughts:
This is one I’m going to have to try and watch again when my head is a bit clearer. It was a blast for me, but not quite, as yet, the 5* ‘Best Film of the Year’ that others have gushed to me about. Perhaps I was not quite feeling it.
Where to watch?
Trailer:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feOQFKv2Lw4.
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