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One Battle After Another is a thrilling cocktail of action and drama. It’s also a strong contender for the funniest movie of the year.
With films like Boogie Nights, Magnolia, and There Will Be Blood to his name, a new effort from writer and director Paul Thomas Anderson will always be an event. However, I still wasn’t prepared for just how good One Battle After Another would turn out to be, and I suspect that’s because of a bias I feel compelled to share before we get into it.
The thing is, I’ve long felt Leonardo DiCaprio—the centre of this film’s impressive ensemble—is one of the most overrated A-listers in Hollywood. I don’t say this to come across as someone relishing in a hot take, but rather so you know the praise that follows for both DiCaprio’s performance and the film as a whole is entirely genuine.
You Say You Want a Revolution
With that, DiCaprio is terrific in this latest effort from one of the greatest filmmakers working today. Loosely adapting author Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel Vineland, Anderson has crafted an exhilarating tale of guerrilla revolutionaries and cynically oppressive government forces that feels so timely, I’m almost surprised Warner Bros. had the nerve to release it in the current political climate.
DiCaprio plays Bob Ferguson, a washed-up and drug-addled former member of the revolutionary group the French 75. He’s also a single parent raising his teenage daughter, Willa, following the abrupt departure of her mother (another member of the French 75).
Despite a penchant for exacerbating his extreme paranoia with a chronic drug habit (a rich vein of humour throughout the film), and the fact said habit is a source of enormous frustration for his daughter, there’s a wonderful chemistry between DiCaprio and Chase Infiniti, who imbues Willa with a compelling mix of strength, warmth, and a quiet longing for her mother.
However, things go awry when their quiet existence living somewhat off-grid is disrupted by the reappearance of an adversary from Bob’s past — Sean Penn bearing more than a passing resemblance to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in his role as the hilariously villainous and ridiculously jacked Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw.
As a result of this unwelcome return, Bob must reconnect with his revolutionary comrades of old as he engages in a desperate race to rescue Willa.
The Funny Side of Guerrilla Life
What follows is a potent mix of fun action setpieces, affecting drama, and far more humour than you might expect from the film’s trailers. I laughed out loud more throughout One Battle After Another than I remember doing at any straight-up comedy in recent years, and the film is the best demonstration of DiCaprio’s underutilised knack for physical comedy since the infamous Lamborghini scene in The Wolf of Wall Street.
Equally well executed are the film’s action sequences, with a number of effective car chases worthy of particular note. Each of these feels unique within the context of the film, culminating in a showdown that cleverly nods to the 1968 Steve McQueen classic, Bullitt, itself one of the most iconic car-chase movies of all time.
To say much more would venture too far into spoiler territory, but I should acknowledge that the rest of the cast members deliver performances every bit as strong as DiCaprio, Infiniti, and Penn. Teyana Taylor is a force of nature as Willa’s mother, Regina Hall gives one of the film’s most moving turns, and the ever-outstanding Benicio Del Toro takes on an almost Obi-Wan Kenobi role to DiCaprio’s bumbling Bob.
The music, provided by Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood, is another key ingredient to making the film so engaging. It grabs your attention from the first scene—a sequence in which the French 75 raids an ICE-style refugee facility—and doesn’t let go. Similarly effective is Anderson’s use of the camera, which is consistently in motion and gives the film an irresistible sense of momentum.
This momentum is crucial, as One Battle After Another is very long, clocking in at 161 minutes, but it somehow doesn’t outstay its welcome. Frankly, I can’t think of anything I wish Anderson had cut to reduce the film’s runtime, and I’m already looking forward to sitting through all 161 minutes for a second time very soon.
Final Verdict
As a filmmaker whose career has hit numerous vertigo-inducing peaks, it’s always hard to imagine how Paul Thomas Anderson might manage to outdo himself, but with One Battle After Another, he appears to have achieved just that.
It’s too early to judge whether this film is actually better than those he’s made before — this will be revealed in time as we see how the film holds up under repeat viewings. But for now, I can confidently say Anderson’s added another masterpiece to his filmography.
★★★★★
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