Sean Zeng
Staff Writer
The revolution is now. In his latest film, “One Battle After Another” (2025), Paul Thomas Anderson unveils his vision of modern U.S. politics in a nearly three-hour-long thrill ride — an action-comedy film buzzing with the same kinetic energy as its vibrant cast of revolutionary protagonists. It is hilarious and viscerally raw, but its flashy style does not hinder Anderson’s ambitious storytelling.
Loosely inspired by Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel “Vineland,” the film introduces Pat Calhoun (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor), two lovers in a violent left-wing revolutionary group known as the French 75. During one of their revolutionary efforts, Perfidia encounters Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn), who develops a sexual fascination with her. Lockjaw is a hypermasculine caricature obsessed with power, and this fascination drives him to blackmail her for sex in exchange for her freedom.
Eventually giving birth to a girl named Charlene, Perfidia is captured by the police and convinced by Lockjaw to disclose information on other French 75 members. Under the assumption Perfidia has died, Pat and Charlene escape off-the-grid and adopt the aliases Bob and Willa Ferguson.
The timeline then shifts to 16 years later. Lockjaw is awarded a Medal of Honor for his anti-revolutionary efforts and invited to join the Christmas Adventurers Club, an ominous far-right white supremacist elite. Since the club vehemently condemns interracial relationships, Lockjaw launches an operation hunting down Willa, believing she may be his and Perfidia’s child. When Willa is taken, a drug-addicted Bob calls upon the help of karate sensei Sergio St. Carlos (Benicio del Toro) and other French 75 members to bring her home safely.
This is a story driven not as much by plot as by its characters. When the camera isn’t frantically chasing the point of action, Anderson patiently lets scenes run on for the actors to fully flesh out the mannerisms of his characters. DiCaprio plays Bob in a state of constant paranoia as he desperately scampers, races, and crawls to protect Willa from the same forces that robbed her mother of her freedom and identity. But he is washed-up and tired, busy getting caught up in arguments with his own allies over secret codes and rendezvous points.
Chase Infiniti is equally excellent as Willa Ferguson, and her dynamic with DiCaprio delivers much of the comedy as well as the political message in the film. And though Lockjaw serves as the primary threat to our protagonists, he is not necessarily an intimidating figure. He is a man of near cartoonish hypocrisy (a white supremacist falling in love with a Black woman), and his insecurity in his masculinity becomes the center of comedy multiple times throughout the film. Sean Penn delivers a performance of the year here, in a role reminiscent of George C. Scott’s ultra-patriotic General Buck Turgidson from Kubrick’s “Dr. Strangelove.”
Anderson is no stranger to commenting on U.S. politics within his films. His 2007 dark epic “There Will Be Blood” portrays the United States as a nation built on greed through the story of an unrelenting oil mogul. However, his new work tackles modern conflicts more directly.
Scenes of Lockjaw’s men invading a high school dance invoke images of recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids. Sergio evacuates immigrants while sirens pierce through the night and officers swarm the streets. Members of the Christmas Adventurers Club exchange phrases like “Hail Saint Nick” when discussing racial purity. Anderson ties anti-immigration sentiments and white supremacy together in this film, suggesting that the former is often simply used as a vehicle for white nationalists to fulfill their ideal of a racially pure United States.
It is important to note that this political commentary isn’t one-sided. Although the French 75 is ambitious in their movement for reform, Anderson does not present an ultimate motive for their violence. Their helping hand is limited only to those well-versed in their secret phrases, which sharply contrasts with Sergio’s active aid towards Bob throughout the entire film. This is a battle between radicals, who are more than happy to use violence to accomplish their goals.
Cinematographer Michael Bauman worked alongside Anderson to bring this story to life in VistaVision (a film format invented by Paramount Pictures in 1954), which runs 35mm film horizontally through the camera for a larger image size and thus superior image quality. The cinematography in this film isn’t immediately eye-catching like some of Anderson’s previous works, but the cinematic choices he makes still reflect the skills of a veteran director. There is one iconic set piece where he pushes his technical prowess to extremes: Three cars are in a desperate race in a barren landscape, bobbing up and down through hills like ocean waves. Anderson establishes the geography through wide shots before cleverly using the hills to either obscure or reveal information regarding the vehicles, allowing us to experience the same sense of urgency as our protagonists when an adversary’s vehicle emerges from behind a hill. It’s directing choices like these that give the film its incredible tension and energy.
As a seasoned filmmaker, Anderson is certainly not unaware of the irony of a revolutionary in a movie claiming that “the revolution will not be televised,” but perhaps it is this very sentiment that he is attempting to highlight. The French 75’s aggressive resistance may not be as inclusive as Sergio’s community activism, but ultimately, this dramatic, larger-than-life approach has the largest outreach.
That is why “One Battle After Another” is without doubt a triumphant piece of filmmaking. While I think it does not quite reach some of Anderson’s previous works (“Phantom Thread,” “Boogie Nights”), it is still fantastically acted and crafted, and cements Anderson as one of the most versatile directors of our time.