Review: One Battle After Another (Plus Some Thoughts on Leonardo DiCaprio)

It is often said that we grow more politically conservative as we age. For Pat Calhoun (Leonardo DiCaprio), that’s not the case, although he’s certainly not as radical as he once was. In his younger days, he was known as Ghetto Pat, the explosions export of the left-wing revolutionary group known as the French 75. They break immigrants out of ICE camps, blow up anti-choice politicians’ offices, and destroy pylons, all in the name of changing the world. His girlfriend Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor) is even more committed to the cause, prioritizing it over all else, including her new family. Things go awry after a botched bank robbery, and Perfidia turns snitch to avoid jailtime, largely influenced by the tyrannical loser, Steven Lockjaw (Sean Penn), a soldier who has grown obsessed with her. Sixteen years later, Pat is now Bob Ferguson, a stoner dad to Willa (Chase Infiniti) and resident of the sanctuary city Baktan Cross. His paranoia over their safety isn’t entirely drug-related, as Lockjaw returns to tie up some loose ends.

(Image via Warner Bros.)

Perhaps my most clichéd quality as a perennially online film lover is that I’m 100% in the tank for Paul Thomas Anderson. I think he’s one of the best directors working and someone whose tales of California malaise and the rot of the American dream have only grown weirder and less concerned with the mainstream as he’s gotten older. Inherent Vice is one of my absolute favourite films, so the news that his latest would be another Thomas Pynchon adaptation (kinda) was thrilling. While One Battle After Another only shares the barest of connective tissue with Vineland, it’s deeply Pynchon-esque in spirit. It’s a screwball political thriller full of paranoia, adventure, nightmare fuel, and silly names. It’s also a blast.

Much like Inherent Vice, the tonal juggling act on display here is highly impressive. This is a laugh-out-loud film about political terrorism and a hard-right government’s destruction of civil liberties. And it is surprisingly committed to its zealotry, especially for an American movie with a wide release. Watching it, I was doing the sickos meme face thinking about all of the panicky New York Times think-pieces that were going to be written about how it “goes too far.” Because make no mistake: this is a film that goes there. Its heroes make bombs, hold soldiers at gunpoint, and rob banks. They are hopeful furies in a world where right-wing extremism has only grown more potent and less accountable. There really are no options for the likes of French 75: either you fight or you’ll be gunned down by those in charge without a second thought, and they’ll never be punished for it.

The face of that rotten power structure in One Battle After Another is Lockjaw, a man who is simultaneously terrifying and a dumb-fuck. Sound familiar? As played by Sean Penn, this soldier is a grab-bag of neuroses and bigotries. After Perfidia sexually humiliates him in the opening scene, he becomes obsessed with her, blackmailing her into being his dom while holding onto the delusion that he is her master. He fetishizes a Black woman while begging to be initiated into a racist private members’ group called the Christmas Adventurers (super Pynchonian detail.) Penn is great at pouting and sneering, believing himself to be an alpha male when he’s really a strutting toddler with an AR-15. Shoot first, no questions. Everyone is beneath him but he’s also pathetic in his displays of power. The only way he can retain it is through cheating: kidnappings, interrogating kids, having soldiers incite riots among peaceful protestors. You laugh a lot at Lockjaw, mostly to stop yourself from crying.

In this world, the men are largely petulant brats with guns and the women are in-control ball busters who could lead the revolution single-handedly if the other gender didn’t keep letting them down (one exception is Benicio del Toro’s Sergio St. Carlos, a local karate instructor who helps to lead and protect the undocumented community of Baktan Cross with efficient zen.) Perfidia, played by a magnetic Teyana Taylor, is a hurricane of righteous anger. Her commitment to her mission outweighs everything else, right up until she’s forced into the thankless position of turning rat. It’s no surprise that it’s largely Black women burdened by the cause and its requirements. They’re most likely to be affected by the tyranny of mob rule disguised as a government.

And I would like to iterate once more that Teyana Taylor should play Akasha in the third season of Interview With the Vampire.

Anderson used to do all of the flashy auteur tricks in his movies, like the Scorsese-esque long take walks through a scene, but he’s become subtler without losing any of his verve. One Battle After Another is full of moments of quiet flair that reveal his confidence behind the camera. A three-car chase scene across the hills and valleys of a long desert road proves to be both tense and winding. The French 75’s missions play out like classic ‘70s thrillers, to the point where it took me far too long to realize that this is a contemporary movie. It makes for a fascinating State of the Nation 2025 double bill with Eddington, Ari Aster’s bleakly comedic portrait of how COVID broke our brains. If Eddington is about laughing in the face of our current oblivion, this one is a fight for strategy.

I once read a probably apocryphal story in the trades about a group of film executives complaining about Paul Thomas Anderson. Apparently, one of them was complaining about how much it was costing them to make a new PTA film that they knew was never going to make back its (admittedly small) budget, and he was wondering why they were even bothering. Another executive replied something to the effect of, “because it’s your turn.” With those great filmmaking talents who are box office challenged, sometimes you take the hit because you’ll get a masterpiece out of it. This happens a lot less nowadays because Hollywood sucks, so it’s a miracle that this film exists. And not just because it reportedly cost somewhere between $130 - 175 million to make. F*ck yeah, PTA, bleed David Zaslav dry!

Honestly, I find it tedious when film fans sit around worrying about the grosses as though they’re indicative of artistic merit. Stop doing executives’ jobs for them, guys! Art shouldn’t be a numbers game. Let’s just appreciate the sheer bloody miracle of Warner Bros., a studio run by a cultural vandal, putting down this amount of cash for a movie all about the necessity of violent left-wing revolution in the face of fascistic rule.

Having the face of that story be Leonardo DiCaprio is, admittedly, hilarious, especially as this film is released around the same time that news of him investing in an “eco-friendly” hotel complex in Israel emerged. Super radical, Leo. DiCaprio is a real movie star, the prestige Tom Cruise who has an innate ability to get audiences to care about films they may otherwise avoid. This guy’s stardom made The Revenant a box office hit. Audiences have never really abandoned him over the course of his near-lifelong career, in part because he’s so savvy with his choices. Being Scorsese’s muse doesn’t hurt, of course.

DiCaprio is a great fit for Anderson, who loves misfits and oddballs who range from inept dorks to egomaniacs. It’s surprising that it took them this long to team up. As Pat/Bob, DiCaprio is appealingly earnest, far more so than recent roles that have required him to use that perennial puppy-dog face for malicious subversion. He’s a nice dude, a wife guy and a loving father who has fried his brain with dope and just wants a rogue army creep to not murder his kid. Who can’t relate to that?

I think DiCaprio is great at playing losers who think they’re hot shit, like Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street, a con artist with bad taste and no morals who falls apart at the seams due to corruption, quaaludes, and his own lack of charisma. Pat/Bob is a loser but more like Doc Sportello in Inherent Vice, another stoner whose paranoia has clouded his usual skills and derring-do. Like Joaquin Phoenix in that movie (my favourite performance of his), DiCaprio also gets to be a slapstick king. The way this man runs and stumbles, like a middle-aged man who is all too aware that he’s no longer young and virile, is hilarious. Imagine if the ludes scene in The Wolf of Wall Street was part of a roof chase.

Leo will always be famous. He’s a wildly popular celebrity who is clearly adept at being an A-Lister. Nostalgia also helps, of course. If you grew up watching Titanic or Romeo + Juliet then Leo will always have a special place in your heart. He was the most handsome floppy-haired man of the ‘90s, a sensitive and safe boy to crush on of such charm and emotion that he inspired full-on Leomania. It’s an image that has endured and arguably gotten stronger because he’s grown as an actor. Him being kind of the Pussy Posse and a man-child with an age cut-off of 25 for his girlfriends has not hurt his brand. Really, it’s only been in the past few years or so that his dating habits and the lack of maturity they represent has started to sour opinions of him. Even then, I’m not sure how much that’s impacted the thoughts of his non-perennially online fans. That’s probably because he keeps his private life out of the way and none of his exes blab about it (NDAs?)

When I wrote a Gossip Reading Club piece on the infamous Pussy Posse profile by Nancy Jo Sales, I noted how fiercely loyal DiCaprio’s inner circle was and remains. He’s still tight with the likes of Tobey Maguire, Lukas Haas, Sara Gilbert, and that one dude from Entourage. In the industry, he’s known for being good to work with and having long-standing relationships with directors, producers, and co-stars. In interviews, which he gives less of these days (the benefits of mega-fame), he’s eloquent about his work and just modest enough without seeming self-deprecating or phony. Despite everything, it remains extremely easy to like Leo. When he’s in the public eye, he doesn’t rock the private yacht. Mostly. He still went to the Bezos wedding and seemed determined to hide from the dozens of cameras documenting the event.

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Class solidarity is always in full effect for the rich. DiCaprio aligns himself with many environmental causes but still uses private jets, parties with Amazon’s oligarchs, and invests in hotels in Israel (seriously, dude, what the fuck?) The bar has always been lower for rich white dudes, especially those who were once our imaginary boyfriends, but it is still a testament to DiCaprio’s savvy that his hypocrisies and weirdness about women always come second to Leomania in the eyes of the world. He’s certainly giving the performance of his life playing a man who believes in doing the right thing at any cost.

Much will be written about One Battle After Another being a “box office flop” or how audiences don’t want something this political. Ignore them. It’s a thrill to have something like this playing in cinemas in the same month where the Trump administration tried to censor a talk-show host and the President is spreading conspiracy memes about magical CAT scan machines. Watch Eddington, then watch this, then maybe buy yourself a drink or two. And also watch Inherent Vice, because it’s still PTA’s best.

One Battle After Another is in cinemas now.