One Battle After Another: "Let's not nitpick over the passwords."

Paul Thomas Anderson's latest film is a fascinating text and another exemplary work in the director's oeuvre.

Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film, One Battle After Another, is one of the most anticipated films of 2025. Based on Thomas Pynchon’s novel Vineland, the film stars Leonardo DiCaprio. To quote from that greatest of sources, Wikipedia, the film “follows an ex-revolutionary who is forced back into his former combative lifestyle when he and his daughter are pursued by a corrupt military officer.” While there’s been a lot of discussion over the film’s financial success, it has received a great deal of critical praise and will likely be an award contender when we get to that time.

OBAA is the second Pynchon work that PTA has engaged with following 2014’s adaptation of his novel Inherent Vice. There is something that really works with Anderson adapting Pynchon given that they have commonalities—the Southern California fixation, the surreal and almost silly humor that can occasionally feel incongruous, larded in a kind of irony. Some of the names in the film, the whole Christmas Adventurers secret society, it all feels appropriately Pynchon-ian.

DiCaprio’s performance as Pat/Bob feels very much of a piece with his role in Killers of the Flower Moon playing characters who are not as bright or as slick or in control as we’re used to seeing from DiCaprio. The former revolutionary who’s let himself go (in some ways) and is not as sharp as he once way really suits DiCaprio in this moment. It lends itself to a great deal of comedy—there’s a whole sequence involving a forgotten code word that plays into this. But I also think there’s some emotional weight to his performance in the ways he wants to protect and save his daughter and when he comes up short of it. Amidst all the chaos and calamity that is both exciting and entertaining, DiCaprio does bring a pathos and humanity to that narrative.

Two performances that really jumped out to me are Sean Penn and Benicio Del Toro. Penn, coming off his portrayal of William Holden in Licorice Pizza, plays Colonel Steven Lockjaw perfectly as a Pynchon character representing the fascist military industrial complex. There are moments when Penn becomes a cartoon and a caricature, and it’s all quite appropriate for this narrative. It’s also always interesting to see someone play a character who runs so profoundly against their personal beliefs and politics, but that's certainly what Penn is doing, going against “type” just like DiCaprio is doing with his performance.

Del Toro plays Sergio, both Willa’s karate teacher and Bob’s companion, providing a kind of humor and levity that he’s known for. I do find that his character, and what his character is doing, grounds the story and makes it more than just a story about a revolutionary who's gone to seed. While Penn and del Toro are known commodities and thus I was ready for their great performances, I was not prepared for how great Chase Infiniti would be as Willa, Bob’s daughter. I would be willing to wager a great deal of money she ends up with a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination, and it will be well deserved.

One Battle After Another features the hallmarks of PTA’s directorial style. The production design is absolutely perfect, not surprising for the director behind Boogie Nights and There Will Be Blood. You also have an examination of America and American ideals, particularly as it pertains to race and class and the conflict between freedom and constraints. You also get the same considerations of the found/created family units and what does it mean to be “family.” I think specifically about the escape of the immigrants from Sergio’s home—the ratcheting up of tension, the steady camera movement—which all feels very much of a piece with the stuff you see in Boogie Nights, for example. There’s also the famous (by this point) showdown/sequence that takes place on one stretch of California highway, which will probably be one of the takeaways from the film. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention cinematographer Michael Bauman, who has now worked on PTA’s last three films. I also think some of the questions the film raises about revolutionary ideology and the costs of that life are very interesting and appropriate (and remain appropriate) in our place and time (I think about the beginning of the film and the pull between Pat and Perfidia Beverly Hills and what that ultimately leads to). It’s a film that does have a certain moral charge and point to it, but it’s not easy or simple.

One Battle After Another is quite interesting within PTA’s oeuvre and the connections that it makes to may other films. There’s that connection to Inherent Vice that’s obvious, you can see some of those links to Boogie Nights, there’s a dash of There Will Be Blood in there too. It’s a fascinating amalgamation of so many of PTA’s interests and concerns. I don’t know if it’s his best (probably There Will Be Blood) and it’s probably not going to end up being my favorite (Boogie Nights). But I do think One Battle After Another is up there with PTA’s best and will hopefully yield the critical praise and awards that he certainly deserves. I’m still making my way through the films from 2025, but I think at this point it’s probably my favorite and the best one released this year.