A new film from Paul Thomas Anderson arrives with the assuredness of a director at the height of his powers, and One Battle After Another is being positioned as a standout in the awards cycle. The dynamic satirical thriller stars Leonardo DiCaprio as a jaded left-wing firebrand and Sean Penn as an unhinged army officer, anchoring a sprawling, high-energy drama that blends humor with white-knuckle suspense. At nearly three hours, the film leans into its ambitious length, delivering a defiant, morally tangled portrait of a country in extremis.
The opening sequence unfolds at a U.S.–Mexico border detention center where a band of soldiers under Captain Steven J. Lockjaw, played by Penn, maintains order. Outside the fence, a radical group calling themselves the French 75 plans to set detainees free, while its charismatic leader Perfidia Beverly Hills—portrayed by Teyana Taylor—drives the insurgency with a mix of political fervor and sexual magnetism. The group’s operations—ranging from bombings to bank robberies—form a brutal counterpoint to the security apparatus and set the tone for a film that lampoons both ends of the political spectrum.
Sixteen years pass, and Perfidia vanishes into the Witness Protection Programme, leaving Bob Ferguson (DiCaprio) to raise their teenage daughter, Willa (Chase Infiniti), on his own. Bob is a booze-sodden shadow of his former self, a reminder of the flame that once fueled his radical exploits. Willa emerges as a quietly formidable presence, capable and resourceful beyond her years, and DiCaprio’s portrayal conveys the tension of a man who both clings to and fights against a vanished past. The film also features Benicio Del Toro as Willa’s martial-arts teacher, whose calm competence provides a kinetic counterweight to the story’s high-stakes chases and threats. The score by Radiohead guitarist Johnny Greenwood underscores the mood, threading through scenes with a wiry, urgent pulse that never overplays its hand. The chase sequences—already among the film’s most remarked-upon moments—are notably choreographed and tense, contributing to a sense that the narrative is moving at high velocity even when the dialogue pauses for satire or character study.
Anderson’s satire is broad but precise, targeting both the self-serious rhetoric of the left and the opportunistic cynicism of the far right. The latter is embodied by a conspiratorial circle known as the Christmas Adventure Club, a wealthy white-supremacist cabal whose ambitions are undermined by their own absurdities. Lockjaw’s flirtation with their ranks examines how power can corrupt and how fear can masquerade as security, while Bob’s struggle to protect Willa exposes the human cost of ideological warfare. The film does not shy away from thorny questions about identity and political speech, including a tense through-line about DNA and paternity that raises the stakes for every character connected to Willa.
A central tension arises from whether Lockjaw is Willa’s father, a question that unsettles loyalties within both the old guard and the insurgents. The narrative tension is heightened by Willa’s own loyalty to her father and her ally, a dedicated martial-arts instructor who steps in to help when the stakes become personal and potentially dangerous. All the while, Anderson keeps the tone dynamic: the humor lands in moments of human absurdity, while the action lands in sequences that feel almost operatic in their scale and precision. The result is a film that plays as a thriller, a social satire, and a character study all at once, moving with confidence between intimate moments and broad, cinematic set pieces.
Critics have highlighted the performances as a cornerstone of the film’s impact. DiCaprio delivers a bruised, layered portrayal of a man whose political energy has cooled into a wary, world-weary pragmatism. Penn, with his distinctive jaw and pace, brings a chilling, almost combustible energy to Lockjaw, delivering scenes that are as unsettling as they are darkly funny. Taylor’s Perfidia is a standout, a forceful presence who can be both politically radiant and personally volatile, pulling the narrative forward even when her own fate remains precarious. Infiniti, as Willa, offers a luminous keynote performance, giving a sense of both resilience and possibility that anchors the story’s moral questions. The ensemble’s rhythm—supported by Del Toro’s physical, precise presence—helps the film move through its more sprawling stretches without losing momentum.
In London for Tuesday’s premiere, Anderson and his cast presented a film that feels both timely and timeless in its appetite for contradiction. The director offered little of the usual post-premiere drumbeat, instead signaling that the project may be the culmination of a long career arc, with an Oscar-worthy moment potentially looming in the near future. The implication, reinforced by the film’s audacious blend of genres and its willingness to dwell in morally gray areas, is that One Battle After Another aims to be remembered not for a single scene but for a sustained, thought-provoking experience.
One Battle After Another situates itself squarely within the culture-and-entertainment landscape by offering a film that is as much a social diagram as it is a work of cinema. It invites viewers to watch not only for its shocks and chases but for its satirical precision—the way it holds both the left and the right to account, and the way it treats individual choices with a seriousness that never entirely abandons its sense of humor. The result is a bold, sprawling achievement that may well become a touchstone for this year’s awards conversation. The film opens in cinemas next Friday.