\nWarner Bros. Pictures<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
The madness begins with the anarchist revolutionary group the French 75. In spirit, it\u2019s 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\u2019s dissolution. That causes her lover, Leonardo DiCaprio\u2019s Bob, to flee with their child who may or may not be his. The other possible father is Sean Penn\u2019s white nationalist soldier Steven J. Lockjaw. If anyone is likely to win an Oscar alongside Paul Thomas Anderson next year it\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s 16-year-old daughter \u201cWilla,\u201d played by Chase Infiniti. Del Toro is so quiet in an otherwise very loud movie that he feels big. During the film\u2019s best extended sequence, a bullsh*t immigration raid on a small town, he\u2019s completely takes over the movie without ever raising more than his eyebrows. It\u2019s one of my favorite del Toro performances ever.<\/p>\n
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 \u201cWilla\u201d 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\u2019s at its wildest.<\/p>\n\n\nWarner Bros. Pictures<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
DiCaprio also excels with a performance that is absolutely hysterical, and certainly the funniest of his career. Like with Killers of the Flower Moon<\/em> 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\u2019s also lovable and worth rooting for. Without any of those elements, the film wouldn\u2019t work as well. And it does work, especially at its primary objective of calling out America\u2019s bullshit.<\/p>\nOne Battle After Another<\/em> is a movie about America and the racist morons who run it. It\u2019s 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\u2019s hard to have them. It\u2019s 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\u2019s meant to be timely, but that\u2019s too small a reading of what Anderson is trying to say. This isn\u2019t just about the current political situation and atrocities we see every day. It\u2019s about how we have always allowed them to happen and then live with them.<\/p>\n\n\nWarner Bros. Pictures<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
What he says at the end of his film\u2014which does feel too long by 20 minutes in part because of a slow developing first hour\u2014is partly why I\u2019m still unsure how I feel about it. This is a movie about stupid bad people and well-intentioned but flawed good people who don\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
But while it seems like it\u2019s 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s 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\u2014whether it\u2019s a really, really good movie from an all-time great director at his best or an absolute masterpiece\u2014I do know it\u2019s everything you\u2019d want from a night at the theaters. This is a Movie.<\/p>\n
One Battle After Another<\/em> hits theaters on September 26.<\/p>\nOne Battle After Another \u2b50 (4.5 of 5)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One Battle After Another is a capital \u201cM\u201d Movie full of big performances, big sequences, and big ideas. It\u2019s a lot\u2014in a good way\u2014to take in. And in an ideal world, I\u2019d sit around for a week letting this audacious story\u2014again, good way\u2014roll around in my head so I can decide if its merely \u201cvery, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1958781,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[379933,333476,378495,306876],"class_list":["post-2048166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-leonardo-dicaprios-bob","tag-paul-thomas-anderson","tag-perfidia-beverly-hills","tag-warner-bros"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/WEAPONS-Hot-Dog-Scene-Is-Actually-a-Heartfelt-Tribute-to.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2048166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2048166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2048166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1958781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2048166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2048166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2048166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}