Star Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Benicio del Toro, Sean Penn, Chase Infiniti, Teyana Taylor, and Regina Hall.
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
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What’s Bad: The film lacks focus and is quite overlong, with many scenes that don’t really achieve anything and could have been done in shorter and tighter scenes.
Loo Break: During the second act, there is a big chunk where characters are just going back and forth through the city with nothing really happening, and there is your break.
Watch or Not?: Only if you are lacking something to watch, or if you are really a big DiCaprio fan.
Language: English (with subtitles).
Available On: Theaters
Runtime: 162 Minutes.
User Rating:
You could say I like Paul Thomas Anderson. I have been following his career since I was a teenager, and since then, I have seen him as a very extraordinary filmmaker, daring to go further than others and jumping between so many different stories that it is quite difficult to predict where he will go next. I even think Phantom Thread was the best film of 2017, but sadly, I cannot say the same for One Battle After Another, which moves along more like a series of scenes instead of a cohesive story.
Adapting Thomas Pynchon to the screen is no easy task. The reclusive writer might be one of the most enigmatic figures in literature’s history, and his stories follow that same pattern, with many being overly complex and frustrating, although they are clearly beautifully written and with lots of ideas to express. The same can be said for both Paul Thomas Anderson’s adaptations of Pynchon’s work, Inherent Vice and One Battle After Another, films with a lot to say, but not saying it effectively.
One Battle After Another is basically divided into two parts, a sort of first act that feels like a montage of a situation and then a two-hour chase through several scenes exploring the absurd nature of the United States of America, by being divided into two opposite forces that don’t really know what they are doing. Meanwhile the true powers are just sitting on their throne watching the chaos unfold. Although it is clear that the film leans more to the left side of politics, as does all Hollywood, the incompetence of the leftist forces is a clear criticism of the social warriors and their methods.
The script doesn’t really shine thanks to its dialogue or anything like that, but the performances that bring it to life. There is also a big chunk of the film that feels like it is just running in circles until whatever needs to happen, happens, and it feels like a waste of time, making the film at least 30 minutes too long. The lack of character development is also quite tragic, because while not all characters should have it, it is really such a powerful tool for storytelling that when a story doesn’t use it, it is pretty apparent.
The film still can be fun with some clever jokes here and there, along with characters that are real cartoons. This is not a film to be taken seriously because while it seems to do it, it never really explores its serious themes with much depth. Everything just seems like being done on the surface, which is maybe just the only thing that can be done when adapting Pynchon to the screen without making a one-hundred-hour film.
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One Battle After Another has an amazing cast of actors, but only three really shine in the film. Those are Leonardo DiCaprio, who carries the movie by being the comic relief, Sean Penn, the antagonist, and Benicio del Toro, who plays the classic, colorful supporting role. We never really go very deep into either of the three characters, but they are well drawn, and you just need to know one thing about them and not much else.
Meanwhile, the women and the film are mostly left to the side, with Chase Infiniti being way more important than the others and doing a pretty great job with the material offered to her. Regina Hill is always fantastic, but she is mostly a cameo, while Teyana Taylor doesn’t really register other than by her looks. The rest of the cast comes and goes, but there are a couple of great unknown actors doing a great job on background roles.
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Paul Thomas Anderson has nothing to prove; he is regarded as one of the best in the business, but I don’t think this is his best job. There is just a lot of energy in the film, that is for sure, but that energy doesn’t seem to have any real trajectory, which hurts the film when trying to achieve as much impact as possible. You can feel there is a lot here, but the film refuses to elaborate. However, there is a great chase sequence towards the end that really ends the movie on a good note.
Jonny Greenwood comes back to score the film, and at this point, he does what is expected: he uses many dissonant piano compositions that don’t seem to match what is on-screen, yet it works perfectly, especially when it comes to building up tension towards the end of the film.
One Battle After Another will surely go big in the award season, more for its themes and excellent cast than for the execution of the film, which, while solid, isn’t really anything spectacular, not as Paul Thomas Anderson has done in the past. Leonardo DiCaprio and company are superb and elevate a script that lacks focus with a lot of energy and charisma, and a final action sequence at the end really helps the film close on a good note.
One Battle After Another released on 26th September, 2025.
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