ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER Is an Award-Worthy Comedic Thrill Ride (Review)

One Battle After Another is a capital “M” Movie full of big performances, big sequences, and big ideas. It’s a lot—in a good way—to take in. And in an ideal world, I’d sit around for a week letting this audacious story—again, good way—roll around in my head so I can decide if its merely “very, very good” or “an absolute masterpiece.” It’s that type of film, the kind you need to digest and mull over to both fully understand and fully appreciate. Instead I have to write this review the morning after seeing it, when I’m still not even sure exactly how I feel just yet. But no matter where my opinion on One Battle After Another settles in a week, or a month, or even a year, one thing is obvious to me already: you should go see this Movie.

It’s hard to think of recent trailers that confused me more than Warner Bros.’ promos for One Battle After Another. The first look at the film made it seem like an absurdist comedy about an unhinged paranoid loser. The next made it look like a tense thriller… about an unhinged paranoid loser. Turns out both were accurate. This is a movie only writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson can make. It’s equal parts comedy, action, political thriller, and family drama. It’s tone feels like a spiritual successor to Anderson’s Boogie Nights.

During the middle portion of the film, when the intensity and story pick up (and then never stops), I was laughing out loud while also feeling sick to my stomach about what might happen. It’s not a matter of adding comic relief to a tense moment, either. The movie is consistently funny even when it’s poignant, tense, emotional, and making you anxious. No one else seamlessly blends genres to create something new and unique like PTA, and he’s never done that better than he does here.

The film is also a directing tour de force. Place your bets now because the best living director to never win an Oscar is absolutely getting off the schneid next year. My thoughts on One Battle After Another as a movie might still be incomplete because of some issues with the script and length, but my thoughts on Anderson’s actual direction were crystal clear while watching. This is the work of a brilliant director at his absolute best. Its many action sequences are impeccable. People merely walking through buildings have the kinetic energy of a rock concert. Yet absurdist scenes of dummies sitting around a table are just as dynamic.

One Battle After Another also features an incredible score and editing. The soundtrack and pace perfectly match the movie’s frenetic madness that permeates everything that happens.

The madness begins with the anarchist revolutionary group the French 75. In spirit, it’s led by Perfidia Beverly Hills, played by Teyana Taylor. Her anger, righteousness, and ultimately regret shine through the screen with the power of a thousand suns, with a performance that certainly should be star making. The movie picks up after Perfidia goes too far during a raid, leading to the group’s dissolution. That causes her lover, Leonardo DiCaprio’s Bob, to flee with their child who may or may not be his. The other possible father is Sean Penn’s white nationalist soldier Steven J. Lockjaw. If anyone is likely to win an Oscar alongside Paul Thomas Anderson next year it’s Penn. The disgusting, hypocritical Lockjaw has a chance to be remembered as an all-time great villain. Penn is that good as a mesmerizing monster.

In typical PTA fashion, the rest of the cast is also excellent. Benicio del Toro is simply incredible as the martial arts sensei of Bob’s 16-year-old daughter “Willa,” played by Chase Infiniti. Del Toro is so quiet in an otherwise very loud movie that he feels big. During the film’s best extended sequence, a bullsh*t immigration raid on a small town, he’s completely takes over the movie without ever raising more than his eyebrows. It’s one of my favorite del Toro performances ever.

Infiniti, who is both vulnerable and powerful in a very challenging role, is never overmatched by her famous co-stars. Considering her life and dad it would have been easy for “Willa” to end up feeling like a character. Instead Infinity makes her feel like an authentic teenager. She anchors the film to reality so it never feels surreal even when it’s at its wildest.

DiCaprio also excels with a performance that is absolutely hysterical, and certainly the funniest of his career. Like with Killers of the Flower Moon it took me awhile to believe he could really be this big of a loser, but just like with that movie I ultimately got there. His Bob is pathetic and tiresome, but he’s also lovable and worth rooting for. Without any of those elements, the film wouldn’t work as well. And it does work, especially at its primary objective of calling out America’s bullshit.

One Battle After Another is a movie about America and the racist morons who run it. It’s about the people who want to change it but have no idea how to do that. About people who too easily lose their absolute convictions when it’s hard to have them. It’s about the way we choose to live and the things we believe in. The current state of the country will make it feel like it’s meant to be timely, but that’s too small a reading of what Anderson is trying to say. This isn’t just about the current political situation and atrocities we see every day. It’s about how we have always allowed them to happen and then live with them.

What he says at the end of his film—which does feel too long by 20 minutes in part because of a slow developing first hour—is partly why I’m still unsure how I feel about it. This is a movie about stupid bad people and well-intentioned but flawed good people who don’t know how to accomplish tangible good. For most of its 2:42 minute runtime, I thought anything and everything could happen, including at the end.

But while it seems like it’s heading one way (whether that was good or bad was unclear), the ending ultimately comes across as the capper to a totally different story with a totally different tone. It’s a very weird choice. It might ultimately come together for me as I reflect on the movie more and rewatch it. But right now, it feels like a letdown that holds me back from being unwavering in my praise.

It’s not remotely enough of a letdown to avoid seeing this movie. Go see it. And see it on the biggest, best screen you can. Because while I might not know exactly how I feel about it just yet—whether it’s a really, really good movie from an all-time great director at his best or an absolute masterpiece—I do know it’s everything you’d want from a night at the theaters. This is a Movie.

One Battle After Another hits theaters on September 26.

One Battle After Another ⭐ (4.5 of 5)