‘One Battle After Another’ Review

If there is a must-see movie this year, it’s ‘One Battle After Another’, the ambitious comedic action drama from the master storyteller Paul Thomas Anderson. While making pointed observations on our current political climate and the flaws of revolutionary movements, ‘One Battle After Another’ is never ponderous,  filled as it is with memorable characters and action sequences so thrilling that the intimidating runtime breezes right by. Anderson has created an epic action thriller that dares to grapple with what it means to be American, what it means to believe in a better world, which parts of life are worth fighting for and which, tragically, are worth giving up for.

Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Bob Ferguson, a former member of the French 75 revolutionary movement, now in hiding with his daughter, Willa (Chase Infiniti). When an old nemesis, Col. Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn) becomes aware of his location, Ferguson tries to recapture his revolutionary zeal in order to protect his daughter and once again find safety.

The film opens with the French 75 surveilling and eventually liberating an immigration detention center near the Mexico border. As the story spans the years, we witness Lockjaw’s military unit perform extra judicial killings, all under the promise of doing away with dangerous criminals, when in fact they show little concern with whom exactly they punish. Opportunity abounds to unpack what this movie, its filmmakers and its characters, reflect in our current world and to what end. And yet you could also choose not to engage with the sociopolitical commentary, and still find a gratifying and endlessly thrilling entertainment.

As a filmmaker, P.T. Anderson has exhibited time and again a mastery of tone, a wonderful skill with setting up cinematic set pieces without losing sight of human characters. Here, Anderson does some of his best work, crafting propulsive and suspenseful action sequences, one after another, while sprinkling in comedy, like a desperate DiCaprio looking to charge his phone while del Toro keeps interrupting him to keep him moving as they flee from the police. Anderson takes the kinds of scenes we’ve seen a thousand times, and makes them feel fresh and exciting, such as a climactic car chase where the cars are constantly cresting and rolling over hills, reflecting the emotional and thematic waves that dominate the film.

Roughly every thirty minutes, I changed my mind on who was giving the best performance of the film, a testament to the staggering work done by every member of this cast. The beginning is dominated by Teyana Taylor’s Perfidia Beverly Hills. Perfidia is brash, charismatic and inspiring, a rebel leader you can easily get behind even as she tends towards self destructiveness. Then Sean Penn steps in as the antagonist, Lockjaw, a self-serious caricature of a white nationalist military man. Regina Hall brings quiet emotion to her role as Deandra, a true believer in the French 75’s higher calling who never loses sight of caring for the very real people in her life. And just when you think it can’t get better, Benicio del Toro brings effortless charm and self assurance as a karate sensei who moonlights as the leader of a modern day Underground Railroad for undocumented migrants. As Sergio, del Toro brings a competence that we’re so starved for after watching the buffoonery on display from both sides of the central conflict.

And throughout the entire film, Leonardo DiCaprio shines as Bob Ferguson, a failed revolutionary who has turned to alcohol and drugs to sedate himself to the injustice in the world while he struggles to raise and protect his daughter. In many ways, this performance feels like the apotheosis of DiCaprio’s career, bringing together so many of the defining traits he has oscillated between in the past several decades. He is ‘Titanic’ level romantic in the early going, as he embarks on a passionate love affair in the times of revolution. He brings gravitas and confidence to his role as the French 75’s explosives expert, giving detailed instructions with clarity and confidence and conducting covert missions as smoothly as anything performed in ‘Inception’. Then as time marches on, he becomes a joke, a modern day Dude Lebowski for the revolutionary sect, spending much of the film wearing a bathrobe and puffing on some weed any chance he gets. This willingness to be silly recalls his goofiest late-era performances, like ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ or ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’. Bob Ferguson exhibits all of this disparate traits, but he never stops feeling like a real person – an idealist who follows true belief and passionate love but then retreats from the world, into himself, when things fall apart, only to be jarred back into action when his daughter’s life is at risk. It’s one of the best performances in a career filled with memorable, award winning turns.

‘One Battle After Another’ is constantly rewarding the more I think about it: Jonny Greenwood’s score is fantastic; the lack of judgment, of easy answers regarding any of the characters’ motivations or fates; the non-stop energy that tells an immediate, urgent survival story while placing sociopolitical commentary firmly in the background. All of this cements ‘One Battle After Another’ as a masterpiece, the kind of movie that feels literary and overpowering even as it flies by, as engaging and entertaining as a more intentionally crowd pleasing action drama. It’s a rare film that is emotional and thrilling, hilarious and thought provoking, peopled by flawed characters all trying to find a cause to fight for, both abstract and heartbreakingly concrete.

One Battle After Another
Rated R for pervasive language, violence, sexual content, and drug use.
Running Time: 2 hours and 42 minutes

Director Paul Thomas Anderson
Writers Paul Thomas Anderson
Stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, Chase Infiniti
Rating R
Running Time 162 Minutes
Genres Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller