Rent One Battle After Another (2025)

Sprawling melodrama that's more breadth than depth - One Battle After Another review by PD

This latest from accomplished director Paul Thomas Anderson packs an awful lot in its long running-time (nearly three hours), with the result that there's much more breadth than depth. Perhaps if it was more focused, or just shorter, Anderson’s message could have been more hard-hitting, but as it is I'm coming away thinking it's ultimately rather superficial despite its best intentions.

It stars of course Leonardo DiCaprio (many names, but usually 'Bob') who's the explosives expert for a revolutionary group called The French 75. After we jump forward 16 years, DiCaprio then spends the rest of the film staggering through the chaos wearing a bathrobe and not making much sense, as though Jeff Lebowski accidentally wandered into “The Battle of Algiers.” It’s not that Anderson lets the film’s politics fade into the background - the film is filled with right wing corruption and farcical portrayals of a secret racist illuminati. But he’s more interested in taking rather-too obvious potshots at the film’s real-world analogues than actually exploring them, and when he does add complexity, that complexity has nothing more than a 'both sides are bad' quality (and sadly he can't portray the film’s one queer character without making them the one person willing to violate the sanctity of 'zip it when questioned by police'). Anderson does commit to portraying White Nationalists as insipid hypocrites who abuse their power, but he also insists tacking on scenes at the end that both strain credulity and add little to the film’s finale. In all, it’s all rather muddled, although to be fair it's perhaps suggesting that America’s political struggles stem from a lack of consistent identity or ideals, or that weekend political warriors are an annoying distraction from real heroes doing real work, like Benicio Del Toro’s karate instructor-slash-underground leader (this sequence is really good, with some very effective dark humour). But the fact that Del Toro’s character genuinely views Bob as the most important person in the room, when clearly he’s not, is a bit awkward.

As with all things Anderson, the film is an ambitious production, both Anderson and cinematographer Michael Bauman do an astounding job of finding epic shots hidden within comedic landscapes, and vice-versa, and the cast is uniformly equipped to tackle this material, although the villain of the piece, Sean Penn's Col. Lockjaw, is more Dick Dastardly than Heinrich Himmler. All in all, watchable enough with some effective sequences but for me ultimately far from Anderson's best work.

A ridiculous and boring mess from start to finish - One Battle After Another review by Alphaville

Grossly overrated, this mess of a film was no doubt Oscar-nominated for its focus on revolutionaries fighting anti-immigration. Sure, the government forces, especially pantomime villain Sean Penn, are horrible and ridiculous, but Leo DiCaprio and the other revolutionaries are no better. They’re just a bunch of sweary nonentities shooting and bombing their way across America. The first half-hour of mostly in-your-face shots of one incident after another, filmed as a scrappy (deliberately amateurish?) documentary, lacks any sense excitement, tension or involvement. ‘Will you stop all this bs?’ a drug-addled Leo says at one point, and one can only empathise. Leo, Sean and the other cardboard characters are given little to do but over-act.

After half an hour we move forward 16 years and now Leo has to rescue his 16yo daughter from the evil Sean. At least there’s some sort of plot at last, but by now it’s hard to keep a finger off the FF button. The depressing, messy vibe continues with no-one to root for except the innocent daughter herself. Cue more shooting etc. accompanied by an incredibly annoying discordant score.

Suggestion: It’s so long that maybe something could be salvaged by a drastic re-edit with a new score. Any plus points? There’s some nice desert scenery towards the end.

Cars and guns, cars and guns - One Battle After Another review by PH

Cars and guns, is this a reflection of the States today? Overlong, predictable, garbled dialogue, intrusive music, is this the best Hollywood can come up with?

Can anyone tell me how Bob builds a house and supports his family for sixteen years with no income?

DiCaprio at the centre of a story about Far Left revolutionaries in today's America - One Battle After Another review by Philip in Paradiso

When the film begins, 'Ghetto' Pat Calhoun, AKA 'Rocketman', AKA Bob Ferguson (Leonardo DiCaprio), is an expert in explosives and a member of a Far Left, anti-capitalist revolutionary group known as French 75. His partner is Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor). The group launches a daring operation against a detention centre run by the government, where illegal immigrants are being kept by the authorities. The camp for the illegal immigrants - or those who are accused of being so and have been rounded up by the police - are Latin Americans; it is guarded by members of a militarized police force. Their commanding officer is Colonel Steven Lockjaw (Sean Penn). The members of French 75 overpower the camp guards and free the detainees. During the operation, Perfidia points a gun at Col Lockjaw, taunting and humiliating him sexually. He becomes obsessed with her and, later on in the story, this becomes an important aspect of the plot, as they - inevitably - meet again.

This is an unusual movie because of its topic, which is not that commonly covered in American films. French 75 has echoes of the Far Left movements of the 1960s, 1970s & 1980s such as the Black Panthers in the USA or the Red Army Faction (RAF) in Germany. (It is not clear when the story is taking place but, judging from the IT and telecoms equipment available to the self-styled revolutionaries, it would be nowadays.) The militants who belong to the movement are a mixture of African Americans and Whites, who want to bring down the American system of government, fight the State and the police, and destroy the capitalist system. As French 75 opts for violence to subvert society, the film turns into a thriller. Despite the fact that the film is highly topical now that Donald Trump is president of the USA, and with the way that he uses the immigration service's enforcement arm (known as ICE) to, in effect, hunt down immigrants and clash with all those who oppose his policy - there are several aspects of the plot that are not entirely plausible.

It is still an excellent film, full of tension and suspense, with an unforgettable climax towards the end of the movie that is bound to become a classic set piece in film. At the centre of the story is Bob Ferguson: whereas his partner, Perfidia, is a highly motivated and fanatical member of the revolutionary movement, it is clear that Bob is getting tired of it all. In the course of the film, he turns into a washed-up drug addict and drunkard who would rather forget all about it, but cannot, as his past eventually catches up with him. Leonardo DiCaprio plays the part of Bob remarkably well and is completely believable as the inept revolutionary who has seen better days. His potential nemesis is Col Lockjaw, played convincingly by a scary Sean Penn, who is some kind of racist, ultra-nationalist, psychopathic white supremacist. Col Lockjaw is nearly a caricature, but no doubt there are many like him out there – and not only in America.

In some ways, the film is interesting because its message is more ambiguous than it seems: viewers may ponder this as they wish, after having seen the movie. In fact, the story is funny in places, if only because there is something comical about DiCaprio's character, forever wearing his dressing gown through thick and thin. So, it is a somewhat unusual film but a very good one, which I would certainly recommend.

An Incoherent Film - One Battle After Another review by SB

From the raucous beginning, in, I assume, an east coast city such as Philadelphia, to its ending with a teenage girl having a shoot-out in a desert somewhere (I know not where), I found this to be a rambling and an incoherent film. Regrettably, I watched it until the end in the mistaken hope that there might be a point to it, and that it might improve. Regrettably, neither happened, and I cannot say that I enjoyed this film, and I certainly could not recommend it.