'One Battle After Another' is Paul Thomas Anderson’s Modern Magnum Opus!

Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest cinematic venture is One Battle After Another, a bombastic and revolutionary tale with an all-star cast and an even more timely script. Boasting Leonardo DiCaprio’s first lead role in two years, it also features a diverse cast filled out by recognizable faces like Regina Hall, Benicio del Toro, Sean Penn, Teyana Taylor, and newcomer Chase Infiniti. "OBAO" marks PTA’s first modern day-set film since 2002’s Punch-Drunk Love, and he wastes no time tossing us headfirst into a fractured America with underground revolutionaries and a sinister group of overlords. The result is PTA’s most expensive, sprawling, and fun film yet. 

At the center of PTA’s fiery universe is Leonardo DiCaprio, finally returning to a lead role after a 2-year break, and marking his first time collaborating with Anderson. As Bob Ferguson, a washed-up ex-revolutionary stumbling through single fatherhood with a vape in one hand and a joint in the other. DiCaprio leans into the performance with a mixture of grizzled self-doubt and slapstick ineptitude, making Bob quite the endearing mess. It’s a great, comedic part of DiCaprio. 

Bob’s partner and co-revolutionary, Perfidia Beverly Hills (performed by a deliciously sharp Teyana Taylor), exits from family life, leaving Bob to raise their daughter alone. That daughter, now 16, is Willa, played with breakout intensity by Chase Infiniti in her big-screen debut. Infiniti gives a star-making turn here, with quick, wry wit and a tough female lead. She shoulders Bob’s mistakes while still giving the film its beating heart. A fighter trained in martial arts by Sergio St. Sarlos (Benicio del Toro, in full comedy mode), Willa is never a damsel, saving herself at every turn. 

The rogues gallery would not be complete without Sean Penn, playing the sinister Col. Steven J. Lockjaw with a reptilian, wooden physicality that borders on parody but never loses its deep menace. Regina Hall rounds out the group as Deandra, grounding the chaos with resilience and a cool head. PTA is known for his all-star ensembles, from the stacked cast of Boogie Nights to Magnolia, and this cast is filled with legends while also willing to pass the torch to a new generation of talent. 

Anderson originally wanted to adapt Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland but worried he was too irreverent to pull it off. Instead, One Battle After Another takes the book’s DNA, especially the father-daughter core, and remixes it into something for modern, politically active audiences. What emerges is part-political thriller, part-family drama, and part-action comic fantasia. 

On paper, the film follows an old enemy resurfacing after over 15 years and dragging the French 75, Bob’s former revolutionary crew, back into the fight. On screen, it is a kaleidoscope of shootouts, border raids, smoke bombs, and tunnel chases. The politics are sharp but never didactic -- migrant family separation is shown in full force, demonstrating the violence of the caged fences and forced oustings present today in the States. ICE roundups lurk in the background of the film like a ticking time bomb. The shadow of the Trump Era looms without a single direct reference. Anderson resists hashtags or cheap headlines, instead weaving today’s anxieties into a timeless parable about resistance, legacy, and the sins of our forefathers. 

One Battle After Another is a bizarre action-thriller fueled by pulpy comic book energy and simmering political indignation. The movie moves with jittery, unsettled momentum. Every cut, every wide 35mm VistaVision shot by Michael Bauman feels like it’s vibrating with tension. Johnny Greenwood’s diverse score relies on a single piano key that ratchets up the tension into overdrive.

But Anderson also knows how to undercut the heaviness with humor. DiCaprio’s Bob is constantly bumbling, smoking his way into bad decisions, and running around in a bathrobe, while Willa’s sharp retorts and Perfidia’s side-eye keep the movie from drowning in self-seriousness. The tonal balancing act, serious and unserious, exciting and baffling, works for all 2 hours and 50 minutes.

More than anything, One Battle After Another feels like a film of its exact moment. It comes along at a time when conflict, both global and personal, seems like a constant daily duty. Anderson channels the spirit of The Battle of Algiers and the radical cinema of the 1970s but filters it through a distinctly 2020s lens. He crafts a humanist story of rebellion that doubles as a father-daughter melodrama, a road trip comedy, and a meditation on generational trauma. By the time the final reel unspools, the film has morphed into something that feels both timeless and incredibly urgent. It’s Anderson’s most accessible political work and his most extravagant technical feat, a magnum opus that manages to be as fun as it is meaningful.

One Battle After Another is not a movie for everyone. Its tonal fusion, its jittery pacing, its refusal to give clean answers, all make it an acquired taste. But once you’re in, it’s addictive and flies by despite its bloated runtime. With DiCaprio anchoring the chaos, Chase Infiniti announcing herself as a major new star, and PTA pulling off the impossible trick of turning Pynchon into a popcorn film, this is the rare feat that feels destined to stick in our heads long after the credits roll. It’s serious. It’s unserious. It’s exhilarating. It’s exhausting. And it just might be Anderson’s modern masterpiece.