One Battle After Another | Cinema on Stage

Directed and scripted by Paul Thomas Anderson. Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Chase Infiniti, Teyana Taylor, Regina Hall, Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro, Eric Schweig, Alana Haim, Wood Harris, Shayna McHayle, Tony Goldwyn, James Downey, John Hoogenakker, James Raterman, Dan Chariton, April Grace, Kevin Tighe.

I was born in 1974, still during the military dictatorship that tortured two of my aunts and killed several of their fellow fighters – and, in the 51 years I have lived since then, I have seen up close how efforts for social and political advances require constant dedication and how each victory must be surrounded by precautions so as not to be overturned through reactionary maneuvers that invariably have the interests of the powerful as their only motivation. In fact, the History of humanity is, in essence, a continuous fight to prevent the dominant classes – whether economic, religious or political – from throwing people to the lions, burning women on charges of witchcraft, keeping entire groups enslaved, carrying out genocides under all kinds of justifications (including “racial purity” and “divine designs”), overthrowing democracies, imprison/execute popular leaders, persecute minorities, deny indisputable scientific truths and destroy the planet.

Inquisitors, crusaders, colonialists, confederates, monarchists, supremacists, fascists, Nazis, Francoists, blackshirts, Stalinists, integralists, Vichystas, militarists, apartheiders, Pinochetists, Khmers, Talibans, McCarthyists, Salazarists, Trumpists, Zionists, Bolsonarists – the names they vary, but the philosophy changes little: dissent must be destroyed; civil rights, canceled; social advances, denied; economic interests of the elites, preserved. Thinking about the common good is being condemned to live in a reality that often sounds dystopian and absurd, and it is no surprise that so many opt for absolute alienation to preserve their sanity.

Fortunately, there are also those who insist on the good fight – like the young people who, at the beginning of One Battle After Anotherprepare to storm an immigrant detention center in order to free them from the military clutches overseen by racist Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw (Penn). Led by the brave and defiant Perfidia Beverly Hills (Taylor), the members of the French 75 group not only fight xenophobia, but conservatism and system itself; its cause is revolution itself in its various facets, encompassing actions that include bank explosions and the HQ of anti-abortion politicians – and if the constant care to avoid deaths suggests an admirable but naive humanism, it doesn’t take long until the inevitable fatality is used as an excuse for the State to act with the usual brutality, proving to be a fight in which only one side has military power (associated with the total disregard for life someone else’s) will never be fair. As if that weren’t enough, there is the sad reality of how moments of repression tend to separate idealists from pragmatists – a distinction that is generally summarized by the former’s loyalty to principles and companions, while the latter tend to see their own survival as a priority.

And all this in just the first act of the script written by Paul Thomas Anderson in a (quite) free adaptation of the work “Vineland”, by Thomas Pynchon (author that the filmmaker had already explored in his excellent Inherent Vice); From there, the film jumps 16 years in time to rediscover Perfidia’s companion (and former explosives expert) Bob Ferguson (DiCaprio), who, away from the fight, now only cares about keeping his daughter Willa (Infiniti) safe. Unfortunately, for reasons that I will allow the film to reveal, it is then that Lockjaw decides to hunt them down while trying to be accepted by a group of Christian nationalists/supremacists, using all the military equipment at his disposal.

Adopting the same strategy as satirical works such as Doctor Fantastic when naming his characters (if Kubrick used surnames like Turgidson, Strangelove and Sadesky, Anderson invests in Perfidia, Lockjaw, São Carlos and Junglepussy), One Battle After Another The only reason it fails to highlight through exaggeration is the absurdity of contemporary reality because since the director finished filming, the Trump administration has taken it upon itself to go beyond irrationality – which perhaps makes the effectiveness of the film’s humor a little difficult, since it is difficult to laugh at real pain, but it certainly expands its relevance and the accuracy of its observations (after all, if the members of the fictional Christmas Adventurers Club at least seek to remain in the shadows – or underground -, the fact is that in 2025 supremacists no longer show any embarrassment in defending Nazis in public).

Not that Anderson and his brilliant cast fail in their search for comic lightness: DiCaprio, for example, who had already demonstrated his ability to gags physics in The Wolf of Wall Streethere creates his own version of Jeff Bridges’ The Dude by composing the older version of Bob as a guy who spent almost two decades frying his brain with alcohol and other intoxicants as a way of achieving not the absolute alienation that I mentioned before as an escape mechanism, but at least an anesthetic to soften the anxiety brought on by the memories of the past and the frustrations of the present (and the fact that he spends a good part of the projection using a robe only accentuates the comparison with the protagonist of About Grande Lebowski, It’s also fun to hear him grunt with exhaustion as he tries to keep up with the energy of the young people who guide him in an escape). Similarly, the sensei played by Benicio Del Toro is entertaining for the calm with which he deals with the most stressful situations, while Teyana Taylor’s intensity as Perfidia is instrumental in helping us understand why the possibility of suddenly finding herself caged by a more “conventional” role – possibly added to postpartum depression – could become something so unthinkable.

And if newcomer Chase Infiniti (by naming her with this name, her parents practically prophesied her participation in this film) demonstrates that she has enough charisma, talent and vigor to share the screen with so many veterans, Sean Penn proves for the umpteenth time that he is one of the most versatile actors of his generation by constructing Lockjaw as a guy whose physical rigidity (cough-cough) is a symptom of a personality composed of always dangerous combinations: insecurity and ambition, ignorance and arrogance, resentment and a position of power. Displaying a series of facial tics that betray his constant torment rather than transforming him into a caricature, Lockjaw is an individual whose intolerance – as is so common – hides curiosity and attraction for the target of his contempt (his response when asked about the size of his shirt is didactic); at the same time, his desire to belong and the feeling that the world owes him more than he has achieved make him a perfect instrument for the goals of much more intelligent people who know the value of employing an intermediary who takes them away from the dirt of their intentions.

Keeping the narrative always moving and creating an atmosphere of tension that Jonny Greenwood’s maddening score raises to almost unbearable levels, One Battle After Another is impeccable both in its more subtle technical prowess (DiCaprio’s digital rejuvenation in the first act is one of the best to date) and in its visual grandeur in the sequence on a highway that ties up the projection and which, converting the road into a roller coaster (or into a sea agitated by gigantic waves, which establishes an elegant rhyme with a line spoken by Del Toro’s character), uses the heat as a filter and highlights every gray speck of asphalt, turning it into one of the most aesthetically pleasing car chases I’ve ever seen.

In this sense, another virtue of this new work by Anderson lies in its ability to create spectacle and flirt with specific genre exercises without ever sacrificing the coherence of its characters or abandoning its political discussions – mistakes that unfortunately Ari Aster made in his Eddington also in 2025. It is revealing, for example, how the same supremacists who so much assert the inferiority of non-whites soon realize the problems they will have with the absence of immigrants from their jobs – and it is equally accurate how the filmmaker includes the detail of how the police forces infiltrate a popular demonstration to stage an attack with a Molotv cocktail so that they can violently repress a legitimate protest. On the other hand, Anderson never fails to make fun of the attachment of progressive groups to rites and processes that serve more as an obstacle than as an organizational model – and over the decades I have lost count of how many times I have seen “issues of order” ruining meetings that came to an end without relevant results because they were lost in irrelevant debates.

The film’s admiration for the revolutionary initiative of several of its characters is unequivocal, even if it is impossible not to notice how the passion and commitment of those people rarely bring about systemic changes – and it is curious to see how, ultimately, the protagonist’s actions don’t seem to make much of a difference, since basically everything would end in the same way if he remained on the sidelines of events (and I don’t believe this is a flaw in the script, but an intentional comment). Still, any attitude is better than armchair or performative activism that is more interested in mere virtue signaling than in the causes supposedly defended; Posts on social networks may have their function, but they will never be a substitute for concrete actions such as going out into the street or breaking some bank windows. (No, beating/murdering protesters is not in the least equivalent to acts of vandalism against financial institutions: buildings can be repainted and storefronts can be reinstalled.)

That said, there are many forms of combat: insisting on school curricula that recognize historical injustices and encourage critical thinking is as important as voting conscientiously or participating in demonstrations against absurd bills – and when Bob asks whether his daughter’s teachers point out how several of the authors of the Declaration of Independence were slave owners or how Roosevelt praised the massacre of Filipinos by the US army, his attitude demonstrates how, in one way or another, his political positioning remains coherent even if his priorities are now different. To top it all off, Anderson repeatedly reinforces another fundamental aspect of activism: loyalty to fellow fighters – even if they invest in different progressive focuses.

Also pointing out how, in the end, class solidarity must prevail over other interests, One Battle After Another is not an optimistic film: as the title itself indicates, fighting for the common good, for the evolution of society and against inequalities is something that can make Sisyphus seem fortunate – and it is no surprise that “the fight continues” stopped being just a motto of the war for Mozambique’s independence and became a motto of the entire global left.

Or maybe I’m being unfair, since the essence of the narrative conceived by Anderson lies in the way in which the continuity of the spirit of struggle between generations is a legacy worthy of admiration. If I applaud the courage of the generation that preceded me in the fight for the return of democracy to our country, I also see with pride the commitment of my children for LGBTQIA+ rights and other political minorities and also in defense of people victimized by state brutality (such as Palestinians and, let’s be honest, residents of any economically vulnerable community in large Brazilian cities).

Yes, political consciousness takes a heavy toll on anyone’s mental health, but there is something very beautiful and inspiring in the realization that the perpetuation of the revolutionary spirit, restlessness, nonconformity in the face of injustice, the desire for change, empathy and solidarity represents one of the best legacies we can leave in our very brief time around the world.

The battles are still alive because they deserve to be fought.

September 25, 2025

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