One Battle After Another review - Paul Thomas Anderson's thrillingly helter-skelter counterculture caper

[ImNotGod]

Anderson updates Thomas Pynchon for the era of Ice roundups, pitting shaggy revolutionary Leonardo DiCaprio against cartoonish forces of reaction

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/sep/17/one-battle-after-another-review-paul-thomas-andersons-thrillingly-helter-skelter-counter-culture-caper

[Xavier Breath]

1. An impressive 98% on Rotten Tomatoes after 54 reviews.

Only one of the 25 "Top Reviewers" didn't like it. So it's definitely on my to-see list.

[Xavier Breath]

4. I was fortunate to see it at the theater this afternoon.

It wasn't discount day, so there was just one other patron in the theater besides myself. Which was a bit funny, because it was in one of the two large auditoriums they have, so we each had hundreds of seats to choose from.

I really liked it. The cast was amazing, particularly Sean Penn. And it was a compelling story full of action, humor and a bit of heart. The hype is well-earned. Two thumbs up from me

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

6. I saw it in a theater with about 20 people. Lots of laughter and gasps

Loved the movie.

[La Coliniere]

2. Was an incredible film

Saw it last night and I thought it was great. The MAGA crowd will positively hate this film and probably use it as definitive proof that Antifa really exists as an organized terrorist organization simply because they are unable to recognize truth from fiction. The film runs almost 3 hours but it never dragged and kept me engaged throughout. It kept me off balance for the first third until all of the events meshed together and the full picture of what is happening emerges. There are great memorable set pieces and a couple uniquely staged chase sequences that worked incredibly well in moving the narrative forward. The acting was stellar from the entire cast, with Sean Penn standing out as one of the great movie villains of the past few decades. I will definitely watch this film again, something that happens with all of Paul Thomas Anderson’s unusual but crafty concoctions.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

5. I loved it. Warner brothers gonna get lots of oscar noms

[GreatGazoo]

3. A $175-million mess of a film

If you threw 'They Live', 'Sister Act', 'Big Lebowski', 'Running on Empty' (1988), 'Point Break', 'Master Gardner', 'Django Unchained' and a bunch of tunnels into a blender this script would come out. The film title seems to admit that plot and character arcs were not major concerns -- it's just one action sequence after another.

The action scenes lack tension because you don't care -- the comedic tone of the film tells you not to care. It builds a bit into the sequences with Benicio del Toro but then del Toro's character is numbed by beer and he tells you not to care. It works better as a black comedy but unlike 'Dr Strangelove' (which Spielberg compared it to) this film is ADHD -- changes protagonist three or four times. DiCaprio holds the film together barely. 10+ improbably plot holes but you are supposed to notice or care about them.

Some scenes and sequences are obviously missing like the start of DiCaprio's 40-foot fall when he misses the roof jump. People train for fights that never happen, eg nuns train with guns but then we just cut to them in zip ties. The daughter trains to fight and throws great kicks then uses none of that. They "kill" one character twice for no good reason -- the second killing adds nothing but time to the movie. Productions notes say that PTA cut 10 minutes from the film after test screenings. I'm going to guess that some of the action sequences didn't play well so they just cut and jump you past them.

A solid performance from Chase Infiniti as the daughter.

[Chalco]

7. Saw the movie yesterday. Hated then loved it.

The beginning is so bombastic but having been warned of that I kept going. I had read the review in the New Yorker by Justin Chang who had said that the movie doesn't kick in until Benicio Del Toro appears which was true. Finally, get into the emotional theme behind the movie.

I think Leonardo's acting was superb. Best he's ever done. His emotional self was visible at all times.

Sean Penn, who I am not a fan of, also was fantastic.

The movie is subtly emotional and bombastic at the same time. Very well done.

Here's the quote from Justin Chang's review that convinced me to see the movie: "One Battle After Another" as great an American movie as I've seen this year, doesn't simply meet the moment; with extraordinary tenderness, fury, and imagination, it forges a moment all its own, and insists that better ones could still lie ahead.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

8. Agreed..have to push past the first 15 minutes..then it gets good