“One Battle After Another” makes a scathing critique of today’s society

Bob (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Perfidia (Teyana Taylor) are part of the anti-fascist revolutionary group 75 French. Their mission? Changing the world from the border between the United States and Mexico through acts of domestic terrorism, mainly in defense of immigrants. But everything goes wrong when Perfidia is captured by her archenemy, Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn). This event, which will mark your destiny forever, is the starting point of One Battle After Anothera new film by filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson that is now showing in Brazilian cinemas.

Sixteen years later, Perfidia is gone, and Bob – often drugged and paranoid – lives isolated from any revolutionary exploits, dedicated to raising his teenage daughter, Willa (Chase Infiniti). Meanwhile, Lockjaw aspires to join some sort of elitist, supremacist Masonic organization. His past, however, threatens to come to light and put everything at risk, so he decides to eliminate any trace of evidence. Then, Bob, unwittingly, will be forced to resume his old fight.

Paul Thomas Anderson loves extreme, extravagant characters and stories. One Battle After Another is no exception. In it, the director of Licorice Pizza, Phantom Plot e Magnolia adapt the novel Vinelandby Thomas Pynchon – another extravaganza –, transforming it into a scathing critique of current society. And he does it with merit. Anderson achieves what seemed impossible: bringing Pynchon’s chaotic, overflowing satire to the big screen, without losing irony or depth. Despite the almost three-hour running time, the director maintains the narrative pulse very well, although the first part suffers from the crude and obscene sexual humor between Perfidia and Lockjaw, which contributes little to the rest of the film.

Succession of crazy plots

Em One Battle After Anotherthere is intrigue, comedy and action. There is something of the surrealism of the Coen brothers, in the comedy starring Robert De Niro Midnight Escape (1988) and the severity of the recent Civil war (2024). In reality, we come across one crazy plot after another (sometimes too absurd, like the warrior nuns who grow marijuana), but all very well put together.

Anderson’s film is a true cocktail that works not only thanks to the script and the omnipresent soundtrack by Jonny Greenwood, guitarist for the band Radiohead and regular collaborator of the filmmaker, but also to the cast. Leonardo DiCaprio is magnificent as Bob (a role reminiscent of his Dr. Randall Mindy from Don’t Look Up). The famous supporting actors also shine, such as Benicio del Toro, and the hitherto almost unknown Chase Infiniti, who plays Bob’s daughter.

Film poster, with actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Regina Hall highlighted (Photo: Prime Video Disclosure)

In fact, the greatest asset of One Battle After Another It’s the overwhelming personality of his characters: nothing about them is ideal, everything is full of flaws, and this imperfection gives great strength to Anderson’s script. That, and also the director’s ability to create a Hitchcockian atmosphere, especially present in the long final sequence on the road, a tense and disturbing climax that encapsulates the best of his cinema. It may not be his most complete film, but it is one of his freest and most challenging, capable of fascinating and disconcerting in equal measure.

© 2025 Aceprensa. Published with permission. Original in Spanish.

• One Battle After Another
• 2025
• 161 minutes
• Suitable for people over 16 years old
• Showing in cinemas