TL;DR – This is a chaotic, uncomfortable, taut, and downright weird film, but it is also completely captivating from the opening frame to the closing credits.  

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid to watch this film.

Setting the Scene

2025 has been an odd year for noted Indie directors trying to tackle the political situation in America at the moment, because most of them have floundered in the attempt. They have been trying to capture the moment, but their stories get lost in comedic attempts or a poor understanding of the very topics they want to analyse. However, today we are looking at a film that just might have cracked the code with one secret weapon that gets lost in cinema at times, intentionality.   

So, to set the scene, we open as a number of self-labelled revolutionaries, including Pat Calhoun (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor), who are staking out an immigration detention facility near the border in California. In the middle of the night, they strike, liberating the camp and beginning their revolution against corporate and oppressive elements of America. The French 75 group places bombs in courthouses, robs banks, and causes general calamity. However, you don’t make that much noise without attracting foes, and little do they know that Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn) is hunting them all down, or maybe just Perfidia.   

Production

There are many fascinating production choices in this film, and I must spend some time right from the start exploring them. The first of these must go out to the location scouts. Every single place they visit in the film feels ideally suited to the story they are telling, and there are some intricate locations that they explore in the movie. Such as the perfectly rolling road that meanders over hills, a covenant in the mountains, and so many tunnels, a crazy amount of tunnels. There are multiple action scenes, each with its own identity, and they bring different emotions with them. The highs of a bank robbery followed by a mad ram raid escape. You can’t achieve such variation while maintaining a consistent vibe without care and craftsmanship, with key professionals ready to bring that care to life.  

Then we have to talk about how sound is used in this film, because in a world where it is common to see bullets flying across the screen, this is the first movie in an age that made me jump with the sound of a gun. Bullets are never trivialised in this film, and each of them has an impact. Firing a weapon should have an effect; that sound should not be easy, and here is a perfect example of that. Then there is the musical score, which is full of moody strings and a piano that is almost attacking you at times. It is discordant, like a jazz meditation stripped back to nearly nothing. But then the score is not always there in the film, because One Battle After Another also employs the use of silence and ambient noise in an almost surgical way.

Characters

Another strength of this film is the characters, because not a single person on the screen is wasted. There are so many named characters in this film that you could be forgiven for losing track of them all, but this is a film that cares about the people in it. That care means that everyone gets treated like they are essential, and I mean every character. Some people show up for less than a minute of screen time, who are just as valuable to the story as the main cast. For example, there was a skateboarding dude whose name I forgot (sorry), and who could have been one note. Still, instead, he was an electric presence in one of the best action sequences of the film. You have Junglepussy (Shayna McHayle), who has one of the best monologues in the movie or Avanti (Eric Schweig), whose quiet presence defined parts of the film, or Col. Danvers (James Raterman), who might be one of the most menacing characters in cinema this year.

It was interesting to see Leo play both ostensibly the main character in the film, but in practice, he is there supporting the rest of the cast, while spending the back half of the movie running around like a goblin. Regina Hall is one of the grounding elements throughout the film, and goodness, is she so good in it as is Benicio del Toro, who gets to have this quiet professionalism throughout, and also the funniest line in the film. I am not sure why Sean Penn decided to play his character as if he was always walking around like he was holding in a Category 5 Bathroom Emergency. Still, I respect it because it works for that profoundly weird character. However, even if there is an MVP for me, it has to be Chase Infiniti who brings Willa Ferguson to life. Throughout this film, she never stops fighting; there is a power and presence to her performance that is electric.   

Intentionality

What holds this film apart from many others this year is its intentionality, which is not a major surprise if you have seen Paul Thomas Anderson’s work before. Licorice Pizza was rooted in a very particular time in Los Angeles; however, even for me, someone with no connection to the setting, I could still follow along because I felt that deliberateness with the characters. Indeed, even Phantom Thread, a film I was not that keen on, still had an attention to detail that became captivating at times. However, in One Battle After Another, I think he has perfected this technique. You need this when you are exploring the current situation in America at the moment, because without it, you flounder.  

One Battle After Another is a film that could be best described as chaotic. There are times when it is a jumble of moments strung together in short succession. The crash of a percussion section without order, while a cello is sitting there strumming one long note, ratcheting up the uncomfortable tension. It could be so easy to get lost in this noise, as so many films have this year. However, because care has gone into editing and presenting every frame of this film, you are never lost, never left wanting, and never sitting in frustration over bumbling editing choices. That intentionality can be found everywhere in the movie, from the hint of drool on a character’s face, or the weave up and down of a road, or the through line of trying to charge a phone. There were these interesting moments, like listening to the audience work out in real time who the Christmas Adventurers Club was. A wave of realisation washing through the room even before the word purity is used, and it is these moments that uplift the movie. Or the choice not to subtitle any of the Spanish in the film.

Conclusion

In the end, do we recommend One Battle After Another? To be honest, this is not the first Indie darling that has worked in this space this year. But One Battle After Another succeeded where Honey Don’t! and Eddington miserably failed. Because it understood characters, it understood its themes, and more importantly, it understood its intentionality. Sure, it gets a bit odd right before it passes the finish line, but if nothing else, it is nice to know that even the revolution has hold music. Have you watched One Battle After Another? Let us know what you thought in the comments below. If you liked One Battle After Another, we would recommend Sinners to you because it is a film this year that also understands the power of intentionality and how you can use it to make something grand.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

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Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of One Battle After Another
Directed by – Paul Thomas Anderson
Written by – Paul Thomas Anderson
Based on – Vineland by Thomas Pynchon
Music by – Jonny Greenwood
Cinematography by – Michael Bauman
Edited by – Andy Jurgensen
Production/Distribution Companies – Ghoulardi Film Company, Universal Pictures & Warner Bros Pictures.
Starring –Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Chase Infiniti, Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor,  Wood Harris, Alana Haim, Paul Grimstad, Shayna McHayle, Tony Goldwyn, John Hoogenakker, Starletta DuPois, Vanessa Ganter, Eric Schweig, D. W. Moffett, Kevin Tighe, Jim Downey, James Raterman, Dijon Duenas, Brooklyn Trueheart Demme, Dan Chariton, April Grace, Jon Beavers, Carlos McFarland, Colton Gantt, Elisabeth Pease, Jena Malone, Sachi Diserafino, Melissa Dueñas, Joe Silva, Patricia Ridgely Storm, Bryan Pickens, Sandra Iturbe, Marisela Borjas Ramirez, Derrick J. Saenz, Esperanza Rodarte De Santoyo, Hadasa Genesaret Palomares, Gilberto Martinez Jr., Luis Trejo, Julian Corral, Elijah Joseph Sambrano, Sherron Gassoway, Pearl Minnie Anderson, Sister Kate, Sister Halla, Sister Lilly, Sister Esme, Sister Karina, Sister Laura, Sister Delphi & Sister Yuka
Rating – Australia: M; Canada: 14a; Germany: 16; New Zealand: R; United Kingdom: 15; United States: R