US EditionMovie Review: Incendiary, Incisive 'One Battle After Another' Is the Film of the Year
Paul Thomas Anderson’s film follows former domestic terrorist Bob Ferguson as he searches for his missing daughter amid political chaos in present-day America.
- On September 25, 2025 | 1:36 PM, Kevin Slane praised Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another as his most entertaining and technically spectacular film, awarding four stars.
- After an explosive late-2000s prologue, the narrative jumps about 16 years forward, loosely adapting Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland, which shaped Paul Thomas Anderson’s film structure.
- The plot centers on a personal chase after Willa, now 16, as Bob Ferguson, former French 75 bomb-maker, recovers his guerrilla skills amid Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw's incursion.
- The film’s presentation includes rare VistaVision screenings, such as at the Coolidge Corner Theatre, while Michael Bauman’s cinematography enhances the large-scale spectacle.
- One Battle After Another positions itself as a film for our moment, interrogating militarism, racism and authoritarianism while evoking 1960s radical headlines to link past rebellions with contemporary America.
17 Articles
17 Articles
Paul Thomas Anderson's new film is one of the most dazzling and controversial premieres of the year
We can thank Leonardo DiCaprio for that.
One Battle After Another movie review: Paul Thomas Anderson film is as timely as it is tragic
One Battle After Another movie review: Paul Thomas Anderson’s vision is unsparing, for both sides in this apparently eternal face-off between the rebels and the system — even as life carries on, unironically.
New movie in theaters"One Battle After Another"Director: Paul Thomas AndersonStarring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Teyana Taylor, Sean Penn, Chase Infiniti, Regina Hall, Benicio Del Toro, Alana Haim, etc.9/10
Movie review: Incendiary, incisive 'One Battle After Another' is the film of the year
Legendary auteur Paul Thomas Anderson has made the film of the year with the incendiary, incisive and frequently quite funny “One Battle After Another,” which just happens to be a searing indictment of this particular moment in American history. Inspired…
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