PTA’s Motion-Comedy-Thriller Is 2025’s Greatest Film

Fiercely political, darkly humorous, and brimming with thrilling automobile chases and deafening shootouts, “One Battle After One other” is not like something Paul Thomas Anderson has made earlier than. Hell, it is not like something any large studio has made in an extended, very long time. The truth that it exists in its present type — as an enormous price range occasion film, with an enormous film star within the lead — is type of a contemporary film miracle. Shot in VistaVision by Anderson and Michael Bauman, “One Battle After One other” conjures up imagery that’s hauntingly fashionable — youngsters in cages enjoying with tin foil blankets, the border wall lit at evening like some type of alien monolith, cops in military-style riot gear beating again protestors within the streets — in stark, gorgeous trend.

Anderson is not pulling any punches right here, neither is he preaching. He is as an alternative crafting the kind of film which may’ve existed extra comfortably again within the late Sixties or early Seventies, when studios took an opportunity on letting filmmakers run wild with private expression earlier than the blockbuster took over and field workplace returns turned the underside line. Will the sort of film play with a contemporary viewers grown so accustomed to spoon-fed homogenized slop? I do not know, and that is actually not my concern. All I do know is that “One Battle After One other” is the perfect film of the yr.

Very loosely impressed by Thomas Pynchon’s novel “Vineland” (in press notes, Anderson says he “stole the components [of the book] that basically resonated” with him, with Pynchon’s blessing), “One Battle” is about revolutionaries who’ve watched time slip by way of their fingers like a lot water. The promise of the longer term has solely been stomped additional into the filth. “Everyone is aware of the struggle is over, everyone is aware of the nice guys misplaced,” to cite a Leonard Cohen track. A type of revolutionaries finds himself stoned out of his thoughts and watching films about extra profitable revolutionaries from the ’60s. What would occur if one thing immediately shook him out of his stupor?

Probably the most fascinating issues about “One Battle After One other” is how Anderson paints a portrait of a world each hopelessly darkish and absurdly hilarious. Then once more, that is additionally the world we at the moment reside in. A prevailing sense of sure loss of life and inescapable oppression hangs over the whole lot, and but, the movie by some means manages to be mild and laugh-out-loud humorous on a number of events. Only one instance: Anderson establishes {that a} seemingly omnipotent white supremacist cult is kind of operating the nation behind the scenes. Fairly darkish and ominous! However they hilariously name themselves the Christmas Adventurers Membership, and after they collect for conferences, they loudly proclaim “Hail Saint Nick!”

As “One Battle” begins, we meet explosives skilled Pat (Leonardo DiCaprio), who works with an underground revolutionary gang referred to as the French 75. Pat is loopy about fellow revolutionary Perfidia Beverly Hills, performed with an nearly scary depth by Teyana Taylor, and the 2 of them have interaction in a number of acts of home terrorism all within the title of bringing down a corrupt system. Perfidia additionally catches the attention of Col. Steven J. Lockjaw, a racist navy man who turns this fiery Black lady right into a type of fetishistic object of lust and deranged want. As performed by an alarmingly ripped and tanned Sean Penn, Lockjaw is likely one of the most memorable film villains in a very long time — a tightly-coiled bundle of self-loathing, nervous vitality, and self-righteousness. He operates like some type of lizard, shifting solely out of intuition and self-survival. There’s not a single redeeming high quality to the character, and Penn has by no means been extra detestable (on display, no less than) than he’s right here.

Issues come to a head when Perfidia turns into pregnant and provides beginning to a daughter. At first, she makes an attempt to begin a household with Pat and her new little one, however whereas Pat clearly loves and cherishes the infant, Perfidia feels jealous of the toddler and seemingly has no want to be a mom. After a financial institution theft goes very, very improper, the members of the French 75 scatter to the wind, with Perfidia vanishing and Pat assuming the brand new id of Bob Ferguson and taking his daughter, Willa, with him.

This complete opening salvo of “One Battle After One other” unfolds with a twitchy, electrical vitality that had me squirming in my seat, aided by Jonny Greenwood’s clangy musical rating. All the pieces in these opening set-up scenes feels extremely off-kilter, borderline feverish. Anderson punctuates it with a automobile chase sequence that is thrilling and solely a style of what is to come back — like “Mad Max: Fury Street” “One Battle” ultimately turns into a feature-length chase scene, by no means letting up, breezing by way of its 162 minute runtime within the blink of an eye fixed.

After this opening, “One Battle” jumps ahead 16 years. Willa is now a teen, performed by newcomer Chase Infiniti, who’s one thing of a revelation right here. Willa will spend an enormous chunk of the movie in peril, which suggests Infiniti has to play the half in a near-constant state of panic and confusion. That is no straightforward feat, and but she does it with such a pure grace that it is exceptional, as are later moments when Willa begins to battle again.

As for Bob, he is the very definition of a burnout. DiCaprio is at all times nice when he will get to be humorous in a tragic, pathetic approach (see: “The Wolf of Wall Road” and “As soon as Upon a Time in Hollywood”), and he performs Bob as a man who as soon as fought the nice battle however who now cannot keep in mind the place the hell he’s half the time. DiCaprio is constantly hilarious right here, bumbling round in a bathrobe and looking out believably baked. He spends his days smoking pot and getting day-drunk, which seems to be an enormous drawback when Lockjaw comes again into his life and turns the whole lot the other way up, placing Willa in severe hazard.

Bob immediately has to show to his previous underground revolutionary community for assist, however his mind is so fried he cannot keep in mind the key passwords required to get the ball rolling. Fortunately, he has assist from karate teacher Sergio, performed by a scene-stealing, effortlessly cool Benicio del Toro. Sergio has his personal underground secrets and techniques, and he is comfortable to assist Bob out if it means sticking it to the fascist authorities that sends faux protesters in to rile up violence within the streets.

As a director, Anderson is a contemporary grasp, and I’ve appreciated or cherished just about all his movies up to now (the one title I haven’t got a lot of a passion for is his debut, “Arduous Eight,” aka “Sydney”). He’s a director clearly influenced by filmmakers he grew up watching — Robert Altman and Martin Scorsese specifically. He creates difficult, adult-driven movies that really feel nearly at odds with the whole lot else at the moment on the multiplex, a proven fact that has change into much more true as the fashionable Hollywood output has grown more and more dire and uninspired. With “One Battle After One other,” he has completed one thing really gorgeous. I do not fairly know if I might declare this Anderson’s greatest movie, however he is taken an extremely large swing right here, managing to craft a film that’s unapologetically political whereas additionally being a wild and loopy crowd-pleaser. These two issues really feel like they need to be at odds with one another, and but Anderson finds a technique to make all of it work easily.

“One Battle After One other” doesn’t draw back from the concept america Authorities has change into oppressive and totalitarian. It isn’t afraid to recommend that generally, political violence is likely to be warranted, particularly when seemingly all different recourse has failed. Anderson’s script is suggesting darkish, unstoppable forces are endlessly pulling the strings behind-the-scenes always. This movie regularly seems like a powder keg able to go off.

And but, Anderson additionally retains the movie constantly enjoyable and humorous. Almost the whole lot DiCaprio is doing right here is hilarious — a prolonged sequence the place he bickers with a fellow revolutionary on the cellphone retains constructing and constructing, rising funnier by the second. Then there are the motion scenes. I do not suppose anybody would classify Anderson as an motion filmmaker, however “One Battle After One other” is propulsive, loaded with shootouts and a prolonged automobile chase finale that is so intense and thrilling that I felt like I used to be going to get out of my seat and begin pacing across the theater to calm the hell down. Are you even allowed to make films like this anymore, on this type of grand scale? I do not know, however Paul Thomas Anderson has completed it. Viva la revolución.

/Movie Ranking: 10 out of 10

“One Battle After One other” opens in theaters on September 26, 2025.