Too often these days it seems like we’re living on the dumbest timeline. Regardless of one’s politics, when hypocrisy is high, there is no other way to process it than believing our lawns crave Gatorade for the electrolytes. The government tells us that DEI is unacceptable and then floods the ranks with unqualified loyalists (some TV and podcast personalities; few with experience commiserate with their position); tells us that there’s zero tolerance for political violence and domestic terrorism but pardoned all the people involved with January 6th; and tells us tariffs are the road to a financial boon while applying them to benefit their whims with no thought on their impact on the country at large (see: soybean farmers).
Teyana Taylor as Perfidia in ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER. A Warner Bros. Pictures Release. Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures.
While these specific examples don’t appear within the new Paul Thomas Anderson film, the satirical action-crime-thriller One Battle After Another, his centering so-called freedom fighters against a perceived fascist government doesn’t come off as just plucked from nowhere. Where one might expect OBAA to drill into power dynamics or push propaganda of one viewpoint or another, what it actually does — using violence, horror, heart, and laughter — is showcase the inevitability of a generation handing over to the next all the battles not completed, all the spoils and costs of victories won, and all the lessons from the battles lost, for no person can stay in the fight forever.
Leonardo DiCaprio as Pat Calhoun/Bob Ferguson in ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER. A Warner Bros. Pictures Release. Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures.
Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor) is the leader of resistance group French 75, a far-left revolutionary outfit determined to uproot corporate and governmental control using whatever methods are necessary. Among the group is Pat Calhoun (Leonardo DiCaprio), an explosives expert who grows close with Perfidia and develops a romantic relationship. However, after the birth of their daughter, Perfidia grows distant and leaves. Sixteen years later, Pat and his daughter now go by Bob and Willa Ferguson, living a quiet life wherein Willa still doesn’t know the truth about her parents and why Bob’s paranoia is more than just a by-product of his regular drug and drinking habits. All of this changes when a specter from the past in the form of Steve Lockjaw (Sean Penn), a colonel in the U.S. military, who has made it his mission to track down Bob and Willa at all costs, shows up at their door.
L-R: Teyana Taylor as Perfidia and Sean Penn as Steven J. Lockjaw in ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER. A Warner Bros. Pictures Release. Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures.
Much in the same way that the trailers for the film leave out a great deal of context relating to the narrative of the film, the following review will keep things as spoiler-free as possible. Additionally, I recommend tracking down reviews by film critics such as Robert Daniels, Jourdain Searies, DarkSkyLady, and Candice Frederick as they can speak on some of the cultural ties in the very Black-led world that Anderson has created to combat the very-white supremacist ideals that serve as the opposition within the film in a far more specific manner due to lived experience versus my own academic perspective. And to that perspective, I’m going to explore the film from the viewpoint of generational handoff and the ways in which OBAA implies a failure of past generations and an appreciation for the next one as wars are never really over, even when it feels like peacetime.
L-R: Teyana Taylor as Perfidia and Leonardo DiCaprio as Pat Calhoun/Bob Ferguson in ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER. A Warner Bros. Pictures Release. Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures.
Based on the 1990 book Vineland by Thomas Pynchon which is set in 1984 during the Reagan presidency, Anderson’s OBAA doesn’t have a specific era mentioned at all. There’s no identification of year or who’s in charge, thereby removing specific anchors that might cause audiences to react versus project onto the narrative. One can make guesses as to whether or not the film’s time-jumped portion with teenage Willa (newcomer Chase Infiniti) is in the modern, Present Day era based on some forms of technology that’s in use, but, by and large, there’s no clear indicator as to when this story occurs which, frankly, making it quite a bit more disquieting. There’s no reason to presume that a right- or left-leaning government is in place, let alone a far-right or far-left one, as Anderson merely shows us the French 75 at a few locations like a single detention center, banks, and businesses, all which could operate under a fascist regime as well as a democratic one. This, of course, is the true horror of the film because one would like to think that they’d be part of the resistance in the face of true evil, but, more often than not, fascism doesn’t arrive proclaiming itself but as a series of small concessions that they convince you to make while telling you that your problems are going to be solved. To this end, the French 75, at least as we see them, are only interested in causing chaos in order to disrupt the halls of power. It’s difficult to understand what their endgame is, though, because that part isn’t as fleshed out for us. Instead, the purpose of the French 75 can be viewed as a metaphor for the battles a new generation must fight, a notion that’s not so much of a leap when one considers that the far-left militia is inspired by the Weather Underground which was a real-world militant organization that existed from the 1960s-1970s and was inspired by other groups before it and so on. Thus, Anderson is implanting within the film a notion of a new generation rising up to take up arms in a battle their predecessors couldn’t complete, but rather than it being directly handed down, it’s something that Willa discovers — an intentional choice for a variety of reasons.
L-R: Chase Infiniti as Willa Ferguson and Regina Hall as Deandra in ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER. A Warner Bros. Pictures Release. Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures.
In one of the trailers for the film, then-Pat is told by Perfidia’s mother (Starletta DuPois) that he’s not strong enough for her. That Perfidia’s line is different than his own. On the one hand, Pat is still working for the cause following Perfidia’s orders, so perhaps the comment is meant to deride or question his loyalty to the cause. On the other, when chaos erupts, Pat puts his daughter first and takes her into hiding away from the movement. He gave up all of his subversive intentions in order to keep Charlene-as-Willa save, did it without question, and did all he could to keep her from that life. One could interpret this as now-Bob running away, taking the out being offered, that he never was strong enough or, within the metaphor, that Bob recognizes the responsibility of bringing up the next generation of fighters as more important than a personal war; although, in the way the story plays, Bob almost becomes deluded in thinking that old battles left unfinished could stay gone for long. So perhaps it’s wishful thinking in the strictest sense, yet, metaphorically, Bob’s stalwart vigilance over Willa at the expense of himself (his forgetfulness used as several comedic bits) speaks to the way that one generation sits down so that another can rise up. Of course, doing so means that the parent can’t always protect the child when war knocks, instead trusting that something that was taught holds true. From this, Anderson constructs a tinderbox whose culminating explosion will rattle you in unexpected ways.
Benicio del Toro as Sensei St. Carlos in ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER. A Warner Bros. Pictures Release. Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures.
Part of this is due to the marketing which positions the film as entirely DiCaprio, but it’s not. Our lead into the story is Taylor’s Perfidia. She’s the first character we meet; it’s her choices that set everything that happens in motion. It is not her, however, who makes the largest impact in the climax of the film nor is it DiCaprio’s Bob. For all of the marketing which implies that Bob is desperate to get to Willa and, if not for his inability to remember vocal passcodes he would get to her, while all of this is true, the marketing leaves out so much regarding Willa as an active participant in the ways in which she takes command of her personage. In truth, OBAA could be read as her story more than anyone else’s because it’s about Bob coming to the conclusion that it’s time to get out of her way in the same way it’s her time to rise-up and step into herself with all the knowledge of who she is. A strong example of this is the costuming for both Bob and Willa which gets layered on for him and removed for her. Put another way, Bob remains clad in the same Dude-esque bathrobe from the moment he goes on the run in the present to the climax; whereas we see Willa, dressed for a dance, seeing small changes in her attire that signify her transition from child to adult despite no change in age over the few days this portion of the film occurs. Through the lens of the metaphor, if we look at Bob as the same as DiCaprio (he’s Generation X), then Willa is likely Generation Z or Alpha (perhaps straddling the line as a Zalpha) and, where it was once his job to fight the battles, it’s now her turn.
Regina Hall as Deandra in ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER. A Warner Bros. Pictures Release. Photo Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures.
From this perspective, One Battle After Another positively broke my heart into pieces in its conclusion. The film is, primarily, a satirical comedy despite its very serious content, so the ending matches that tone; yet there is a pervasive feeling of failure. Perfidia and Bob never completed their mission just as the generations before them who sought to change the world couldn’t. (Admittedly, beyond causing chaos, the mission of French 75 is far less clear, especially compared to Benicio del Toro’s Sensei Sergio St. Carlos’ quieter, community-based social work.) This doesn’t mean that changes weren’t made, but that the intended outcome was too big for one generation to handle and, so, a new generation has to pick up and continue the fight. Life is little more than one battle after another with battlefields forged on the streets and in courts. Where each generation tries to make things better for the next, even the ones who see “better” as being able to apply more pressure to a weaker citizenry. On the whole, the film is a deeply dirty, profoundly angry, loudly hilarious declaration of apology, and a prayer for the Willas who join the fray.
In theaters September 26th, 2025.
For more information, head to the official One Battle After Another website.
Final Score: 4 out of 5.
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Categories: Films To Watch, In Theaters, Recommendation, Reviews
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