“You know what freedom is? No fear. Just like Tom Cruise.”
Ever since he burst onto the scene in the 1990s with the three movies “Hard Eight” (1996), “Boogie Nights” (1997) and “Magnolia” (1999), director Paul Thomas Anderson has been one of Hollywood’s leading auteur filmmakers. His most famous film, released in 2007, “There Will Be Blood,” was his first time having one of his movies be nominated for Best Picture. He was able to do this two more times with “Phantom Thread” (2017) and “Licorice Pizza” (2021). Now, he has come up with his biggest and most audience-friendly film yet, adapted from Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel “Vineland.”
The plot follows former left-wing revolutionaries of the group the French 75, where a father and his infant daughter have been forced into hiding in the sanctuary city of Baktan Cross, California, to avoid being hunted down and killed by the U.S. Government. The father took the alias of “Bob Ferguson” (played by the legendary Leonardo DiCaprio, who won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 2015 for Alejandro González Iñárritu’s “The Revenant”) and his daughter took on the name “Willa” (played by Chase Infiniti, in her feature film debut).
16 years later, Bob has let himself go and become a paranoid stoner and recluse, while Willa is starting to resent her Dad’s over-reaching ways. But when Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw (played by the two-time Best Actor winner Sean Penn, for Clint Eastwood’s “Mystic River” (2003) and Gus Van Sant’s 2008 film “Milk”) tries to tie up loose ends from his past, Willa goes on the run. Bob has to fight for his life to find his daughter and keep her safe, all while stoned out of his mind.
DiCaprio gives his most comedic performance since his role in Martin Scorsese’s “The Wolf of Wall Street” (2013). His character is so hopelessly inept and out of his element, bringing a humorous perspective to all his scenes. Unless Timothée Chalamet delivers a career-best performance later this year in Josh Safdie’s “Marty Supreme,” Leo might just take home his second Oscar.
Two other members of the French 75 we meet are Deandra (played by Regina Hall) and Perfidia Beverly Hills (played by Teyana Taylor), but both have fairly limited screentime compared to the other characters in the film. But in my opinion, the real standout in the cast is Chase Infiniti. Given that this is her only film role so far, I am looking forward to whatever she does next.
However, Penn’s performance as Colonel Lockjaw was one of the most memorable of the entire movie. He was able to convey such a perverted and monstrous individual so well on film, and his presence is felt throughout the entire narrative. Lockjaw’s appearance also seems to be making fun of insecure and older conservative men, with his extremely tight fitting shirts and bulging protruding muscle looking strikingly similar to both Vince McMahon and RFK Jr. But my favorite supporting character of the film was Sensei Sergio (played by Benicio del Toro, who won Best Supporting Actor for his role in Steven Soderberg’s 2000 film “Traffic”). Sensei showed that you don’t have to be a revolutionary to fight fascism, and we can all resist in our own way.
I am sure that much of the discourse surrounding this movie will be surrounding the political parallels to our current circumstances. The film opens with the bombing and liberation of an ICE detention facility, shows the American Military being weaponized by selfish officials for their own gain at the expense of immigrants and poking fun at the very idea of white nationalists by labeling them as “Christmas Adventurers.”
On a much lighter note, this also was the second film in the 2020s to be fully shot on VistaVision cameras, after Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist” was released last year in 2024. While not being shot at a full IMAX 70mm resolution, the format does offer the ability for a standard 35mm film to be projected in such a way to be analogous to a 6K digital image. If you have the opportunity, please see it in IMAX to get the full experience. “Sinners” will still probably win for Best Cinematography, but this film will certainly give it a run for its money.
Jonny Greenwood’s score might just be the best of the year, and the penultimate car sequence, with the camera situated from the point of view of the car moving up and down rolling hills, is just breathtaking and stunning.
Sometimes, when you see a new movie on opening night, it is a magical feeling when you know that you’ve just discovered an instant classic. “One Battle After Another” simply is the film for this moment in time, and the 2020s as a whole.
This is one of the greatest films of PTA’s career, if not his very best. And we might have to consider this as our Best Picture frontrunner. You should see it on the absolute biggest possible screen that you can. This is what cinema should be, and audiences need to show Hollywood that it is OK to make great pieces of art like this. My final rating for “One Battle After Another” is a revolutionary 10/10.
