REVIEW: 'One Battle After Another' Is The Cinematic Masterpiece Of The Year

Christopher Mills
Sep 18
4 min read

Leonardo DiCaprio and Chase Infiniti Text: One Battle After Another Review — *One Battle After Another* © Warner Bros

Paul Thomas Anderson has proven time and time again that he's one of the greatest auteurs of our time, and there's simply no denying it, having created masterpieces such as Magnolia, Boogie Nights, Phantom Thread and more. Anderson brings us yet another masterpiece in the form of One Battle After Another, a politically charged action movie that delivers audiences one of the most defining pieces of text regarding the current state of America. One Battle After Another is chaotic, exhilarating, and outrageously hilarious but never steers away from its message, keeping you on this fast-paced track through its near three-hour runtime.

One Battle After Another follows a former group of revolutionaries known as the French 75, who reunite after 16 years of hiding once their sworn enemy, Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn), resurfaces and kidnaps Willa Ferguson (Chase Infiniti), the daughter of Bob Ferguson (Leonardo DiCaprio), a washed-up ex-revolutionary and Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor). With Bob struggling in the midst of a drug and alcohol problem, he struggles without the aid of his wife after she abandoned them all those years ago, and unfortunately for Bob, his memory isn't up to par.

Paul Thomas Anderson has portrayed with his previous films that usually their strongest factor are the characters we follow. Usually these characters are flawed, and with One Battle After Another, arguably every character aside from Willa is flawed. The cast that Anderson has pulled out for this film is easily its greatest achievement. There are several performances throughout that should easily be contenders for the upcoming award season, but with how timely and relevant this film is, they might be too scared to allow it any wins.

Chase Infiniti as Willa Ferguson standing in a field with a machine gun shooting with nuns sat in the background in 'One Battle After Another'. — Chase Infiniti as Willa Ferguson in *One Battle After Another*. © Warner Bros.

Anderson has a trend of bringing on actors for their debut role and then them absolutely smashing it out of the park; he did it with Cooper Hoffman and Alana Haim (who also appears in this film) in Licorice Pizza, but Chase Infiniti might be the best piece of casting we've witnessed from one of his films. She acts opposite legends such as DiCaprio and Penn but manages to steal scenes from the two, giving one of the best performances of the year and making it seem like she's been in the acting game for years.

Leonardo DiCaprio delivers a nuanced performance as Bob as he deals with his alcohol and drug abuse and tries to get his shit together to find the one person who means the entire world, providing us with the strong emotional core of the film with this father/daughter storyline that's being told in the background while also providing us with one of his funniest roles yet. From the dialogue itself to his line delivery, there wasn't a moment where he wasn't making me laugh when intended. Benicio del Toro also comes in to help lift up the mood, adding ever so slightly to the humour of the film and altogether just being the sensei we all need in our lives.

Teyana Taylor only appears during the first act of the movie but leaves us with a performance that creates a long-lasting effect, allowing her presence to still be felt even once she has exited. She's an integral character to the film, coming from a family of revolutionaries but eventually struggling with motherhood, and while at first it may be played out to be jealousy, the movie breaks this down further into something that's personal and bigger than the revolution.

Leonardo DiCaprio as Bob Ferguson standing with a sniper rifle in his robe staring at someone offscreen in 'One Battle After Another'. — Leonardo DiCaprio as Bob Ferguson in *One Battle After Another.* © Warner Bros.

Outside of the star that is Chase Infiniti, Sean Penn is another strong standout that has you questioning what his true motives are during every scene. He's easily the best villain we've gotten in cinema this year, and Penn delivers such a chilling and menacing performance and puts us behind the eyes of a white supremacist that doesn't really know what he wants except for the idea of superiority. At the end of the day, as unpredictable as Lockjaw is, he's a senseless buffoon that just happens to be the scariest guy in the room because of the amount of power he holds within his rank.

One Battle After Another is an explosive, chaotic film that's always on the go as Anderson tackles themes such as immigration, white supremacy, corruption and the many other issues that America is currently going through, overall providing a reflection on the extremism that takes place. He has a lot to say and does so through the means of satire without taking away from the seriousness of the topics at hand.

It's a sincere movie that still provides hope by the end but also sends the message that the cycle will likely repeat itself and that it is indeed one battle after another, but that shouldn't take away from the idea that someday we might be able to change the state of America and the world are currently in right now. Paul Thomas Anderson has created a generational, timely masterpiece that we'll look back on ten years from now that will likely still be relevant and leave us with a lot to talk about. It's an achievement that he's been able to craft a film such as this, but I have a strong belief that he's one of the few filmmakers that had it in them to pull this off.