One Battle After Another
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When their evil enemy resurfaces after 16 years, a group of ex-revolutionaries reunite to rescue one of their own’s daughter.
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IN THEATERS
See production info at IMDbPro
- Awards
- 3 wins & 2 nominations total
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Why Leo Says ‘One Battle After Another’ Has to Be Seen in Theaters
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Official Featurette – Leonardo DiCaprio is Bob Fergus
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- Talleyrand
- (as Dijon)
- Sober Rick
- (as Brooklyn Trueheart Demme)
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Featured reviews
Best Movie of 2025
Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another is nothing short of a triumph. It stands as one of his most ambitious, visceral, and emotionally resonant works – a film that balances spectacle and satire. The Performances across the Board are Great, and is sure to score Sean penn a 3rd Oscar for this role. Technically too, the film is a marvel. Jonny Greenwood’s score is electrifying, evoking tension, and bursts of chaotic energy. Editing, sound design, the layering of set pieces with quieter emotional beats: each technical element supports the whole with precision. It feels like a film made out of love.
Overhyped. Kinda slow and vague
Alright, I went to see it. I just got back. Long story short: I’m a little disappointed, honestly.
I’ll start with the good: the movie has some aesthetic scenes, particularly near the end. I like the desert scenery, and there are scenes inside a beautiful convent. There is a really cool, well-filmed car-chase. There are a few funny moments, like when Dicaprio yells at a phone operator (the previews spoiled a bit of this part though). Sean Penn’s character offers a couple laughs too. Lastly – I really like Benicio Del Toro’s character. He is the most charming and likable character in the movie.
In the end, though – I think the bad outweigh the positives. My first complaint is that there is so much unnecessary music throughout the entire movie. Even during some thrilling, beautiful chase scenes, the movie will have all sorts of jazz or piano music blaring, which got so annoying.
Anyways – I also found the movie to be quite slow and kinda dull. There’s a ton of talk; there’s a bit of fluff. More than once, I found myself yawning. I legit felt my eyes closing during the first 30-40 minutes of the movie, which focused a lot on Dicaprio’s wife (who is a dry and loathsome character). Until the point where Sean Penn begins chasing Dicaprio and his daughter, the movie is a slog to get through. In some ways, the movie unfortunately reminded me a bit of “Black Bag,” another critically-acclaimed movie that I didn’t like much
The movie trips on itself by giving some critical moments to minor characters. To explain those parts would be to spoil, so I won’t say much. The effect is that scenes that could have been hard-hitting end up falling flat.
The main protagonists are not likable. The movie mistakenly expects the viewer to find Dicaprio and his wife likable just because they free some detained illegal immigrants at the opening. In truth, I was actually pulling for Sean Penn’s character until the movie randomly connects him to some white supremacist group. And speaking of that group – the movie is so vague about them. I knew that this group was a white supremacist group because I had read a few critic reviews. If I had not, then I wouldn’t have even known that the group is supposed to be racist
The movie has a 98% on RT, and people are already calling it an Oscar winner. I feel that praise is overblown.
6.0/10.
Sorry but this doesn’t deserve all the 10/10s
Granted it’s good, and I like most of PTA’s films, but it’s not like this is anywhere near as brilliant as something like There Will Be Blood or The Master.
The plot is very simple, and while that’s not a bad thing, I found it difficult finding anything substantial to grab onto. The performances are certainly good but again it feels like all the actors with the exception of probably Chase Infiniti and maybe Sean Penn aren’t given a whole lot to do.
In my opinion this was far less interestingly photographed than something like Phantom Thread, and with less compelling characters than something like The Master, and lacked the spectacle and gravitas of something like There Will Be Blood.
Still better than most films releasing these days, but if you’re looking at all the rave reviews like I was and expecting a masterpiece, from my perspective I’d be lowering my expectations.
It gets a 7/10 for being well performed and pretty well written, but I can’t go beyond that because it lacked the depth I’d normally be seeking from filmmakers of PTA’s caliber.
Curb your enthusiasm
I really didn’t expect to write a review, but the amount of PTA bots calling this movie a masterpiece made me say two or three things. I think it’s a perfectly solid movie, it looks good, the pace is okay, the actors are perfectly talented but not used to their full potential. The script is what lowers the quality and impression of this movie because the jokes are cringe or better said cheap and predictable. But okay jokes aside, what’s missing the most is a deeper dive into the characters and their relationships, who they are and why they do the things they do, but everything remains kind of surface level, unfinished, which results in me simply not caring about these characters. The action is nowhere near as crazy as they want you to think and the music, although great, is a bit too distracting at times. I’ll conclude this review because I have nothing to say except that it’s a perfectly solid movie but pls don’t expect a masterpiece just because a big director’s name is attached to it.
Good but lacks a lot
I was hyped to watch this, i was literally having dreams for days how im running away through locations in slippers as Dicaprio.
I mean its a good movie but nowhere near as good as people and critics are saying (96 metacritic is insane).
Its nicely shot, acting is ok, i thought the dialogue was cringe at times but also good. Music is ok but kinda obnoxious and doesnt let the scenes breathe. It was funny here and there and some scenes were really good. Tone was pretty all over the place and film didnt go into places i thought it would, there was a lack of highlights.
Spoilers
As soon as the film started i knew i was in for a letdown because it was basically quick montage of people doing stuff that isnt epic or engaging, followed by soundtrack that lets you the viewer know its alright, there is no tension and the “”””backstory”””””of the gang moves too quickly.
Spielberg said there is more action in the first hour of this than all PTA films combined, yeah right……… People are saying the final chase is one of the best sequences of this decade, it was good but nowhere near…
Im rambling at this point but there is nothing crazy here, i thought we were gonna get a long backstory of the gang and see the relationships between them and learn important info that will come into play later. NOPE there is none of that, film moves so quick that in the first hour you are thrown into running away with dicaprio and i thought to myself hm ok maybe the rest of the movie will be epic to make up for the first hour, no it was literally too long and dicaprio running away was barely in the film. Benicio Del Toro was the character i thought will be one of the most memorable in the film and we will go on the epic adventure with him, nope.
Spoilers over
There is so much unimportant stuff thrown into this that im baffled. There is so much that could have happened, but no i guess PTA wanted to tell this unoriginal story with barely any style.
I have a headache so maybe il return later to write more.
Im somewhere between 6 and 7 on this one.
Paul Thomas Anderson’s Films, Ranked
See how the films directed by Paul Thomas Anderson stack up, according to IMDb ratings.
