One Battle After Another
Directed by Paul Thomas AndersonDe uitgebluste revolutionair Bob leeft samen met zijn energieke, zelfredzame dochter Willa ondergedoken op een rustige plek en gaat stoned en paranoïde door het leven. Als zijn aartsvijand na zestien jaar weer opduikt en Willa verdwijnt, moet de voormalige rebel zichzelf bij elkaar rapen om haar te vinden, waarbij zowel vader als dochter wordt geconfronteerd met de consequenties van zijn verleden.
One Battle After Another Ratings & Reviews
- Tom Bennett4 dgn geledenYeah PTA really nailed this one. It felt so authentic I sometimes almost thought I was watching a documentary save the excellent sound track. Leonardo was actually really good but the true surprise for me was Sean Penn who leaned way in to a difficult character. Stunning scenes and camera work with a tight script that went places I never anticipated - this one deserves the awards it got. Definitely recommend.
- Dom02087615 november 2025What the hell did I just watch?
- thomasrogers75327 september 2025PTA might actually be one of the greatest directors of our time I also loved Leo and Del Toro
- Magnus Parde16 november 2025"One Battle After Another" is less a movie and more a chaotic descent into tasteless indulgence. From the opening scene, it’s clear the director was preoccupied with titillation over storytelling. The film plays out like a bizarre mashup of a 1970s disaster flick—except instead of tension or drama, we’re treated to a parade of gratuitous encounters that feel wildly out of place. Imagine an airplane spiraling toward doom while the passengers are inexplicably more interested in hooking up than surviving. That’s the tone. And it’s exhausting. The script is incoherent, the pacing erratic, and the characters are caricatures of bad decisions. There’s no emotional core, no thematic depth—just a relentless barrage of scenes that seem designed to provoke rather than entertain. It’s not edgy. It’s just lazy. Worse still, this film feels emblematic of a broader decline in Hollywood’s creative standards. If this is what the industry is banking on, it’s no wonder audiences are turning away. Substance is being replaced by shock value, and the result is a product that caters to the lowest common denominator. If trends like this continue, the only viewers left will be those who’ve given up on cinema as an art form. Avoid at all costs. This isn’t a battle worth fighting.
- Angel23 december 2025After watching this movie, I am starting to understand that Europe and the USA have become completely different worlds. I had the chance to get to know an American for a while two months ago, and I've already got a hint of the same dissonance. The music, the actors, the shots, a masterpiece, but regarding the script, for some reason, I always have the same feeling. Like if I am watching a documentary about an alien civilization in despair about to collapse, that doesn't have anything to do with my reality in Europe. Don't get me wrong, we are about to collapse too, but for completely different reasons xD. A background of total disconnection about what is happening in the movie, and what I believe is true because of my context. I can't imagine this happening, that's the problem. But a bigger problem is if this can be in the imaginarium of somebody else. I wonder if there would be a point where the content from America just connects with Americans, specifically from just one side, because the other side doesn't control the narrative in cinemas. Currently, it does not connect with me anymore. I suppose if I live there, and I vote democrats this is a full masterpiece, but I remember with sadness and melancholy when Hollywood was the fabric of dreams with no sides, now it is just another tool for propaganda. I kinda understand why the youngsters don't get it, you need to go back more than 20 years to find dreams instead of advertisement in cinemas. Many kids tell me they didn't watch The Lord of the Rings ever, so ask them if they know about Back to the Future or Indiana Jones is pointless most of the time, they will never understand what a movie was at that time for your imagination, for your growth, for your hopes and beliefs. Now you are just injected with hatred, revenge and pain.
- Austin Burke24 oktober 2025One Battle is enthralling, delivering a relentless and action-fueled experience that never lets up until the final frame. Every performance is fantastic, while Penn’s Lockjaw steals his moments through sheer menace. The film is occasionally frightening but maintains balance with a wickedly comedic edge, especially with Leo, who is reveling in his role’s unhinged charm. It exudes chaotic and politically-charged energy but never lets its father/daughter story get lost along the way…
- Zhorax4 dgn geledenGood, but not their best work
- Raphael Dreier14 november 2025boring movie
- Charles Hilton27 november 2025I made it 20 minutes into the movie and couldn't stand it anymore. Good cinematography, and acting, but that's about it. Just a painful movie to watch. It's like being on a subway with a schizophrenic yelling nonsense. You just mind your time and be quiet until it's your stop, but you're looking around for the nearest exit the entire time.
- eyeofthetornado4 oktober 2025Best movie of 2025 so far. I will not write a review, everybody has to see themselves
- Ricardo Castro31 oktober 2025One of the best films of the year. The first act is perfect, and Sean Penn’s performance is both creepy and incredible throughout. I can’t wait to see it again.
- Kenneth Boström4 dgn geleden*Paul Thomas Anderson turns modern America into a beautiful, paranoid fever dream.* There’s a certain kind of film that feels less like watching a story and more like being dropped into someone else’s nervous system. The conversations overlap. People interrupt each other halfway through thoughts. Someone starts laughing at exactly the wrong moment. Violence arrives suddenly, almost casually, then disappears before you’ve fully processed it. Half the characters seem spiritually exhausted, the other half dangerously awake. _One Battle After Another_ gave me that feeling. Not confusion exactly. More like controlled disorientation. The sensation of walking through a city late at night when you’re slightly too tired and everything begins to feel strangely cinematic: neon reflecting in puddles, distant sirens blending into music, ordinary faces suddenly carrying enormous emotional weight. That’s the atmosphere Paul Thomas Anderson creates here. And almost nobody alive directs atmosphere better. ## Bodies in Motion One thing I kept thinking about while watching the film is how physical PTA’s movies are. Not “physical” in the action-movie sense. Physical in the way people occupy space. The way they walk into rooms. Sit down too hard. Pause before answering. Look away during conversations. Collapse into furniture like they haven’t slept in days. PTA understands something many directors don’t: human movement is narrative. That’s why the performances here work so beautifully. Leonardo DiCaprio gives one of those performances that feels permanently unstable, as if his character is improvising himself moment to moment just to survive the next conversation. There’s a nervous electricity to him throughout the film, like someone trying to outrun a panic attack using charm and momentum. Then there’s Benicio del Toro, who somehow does the opposite. He slows the movie down whenever he appears. While everyone else feels frantic and combustible, Del Toro moves through scenes with this heavy, almost dreamlike calm. And Sean Penn — my god. Even the way he walks tells a story. It’s one of those deeply physical late-career performances where an actor no longer seems concerned with looking impressive or charismatic. He just inhabits the character completely. Every movement feels exhausted, dangerous, slightly decayed. You could probably mute the film entirely and still understand who his character is. And I absolutely have to mention Regina Hall, who gives the movie some of its most human moments. In a film full of paranoia, ego, masculine collapse, and emotional noise, she brings warmth and emotional intelligence without ever simplifying the material. Her presence feels grounding — like the only person in the room fully aware of how absurd everyone else has become. ## The Beauty of Paranoia Visually, the film is extraordinary. Not in the overly polished way many modern prestige films are extraordinary. Nothing here feels sterile. PTA shoots faces, empty rooms, highways, cheap interiors, late-night streets, and fragments of conversation with the same obsessive attention. The movie constantly drifts between beauty and unease. Even the quiet scenes feel like something might rupture underneath them. I kept thinking about 1970s American cinema while watching it. Not because PTA imitates that era — he’s long moved beyond simple homage — but because the film has that same loose, searching energy. Movies used to feel allowed to wander. To breathe. To become strange for a few minutes. PTA still trusts audiences enough to do that. There are scenes in _One Battle After Another_ that seem to operate almost entirely on rhythm and mood rather than information. Conversations spiral sideways. Characters disappear and reappear emotionally transformed. Entire sequences feel suspended between comedy and dread. And somehow it all works. Not mechanically. Emotionally. ## The Human Thing Underneath What finally separates PTA from many technically brilliant directors is compassion. Underneath all the virtuosity — the camera movements, the layered sound design, the chaos, the visual precision — there’s always deep empathy for damaged people. His characters are often lonely men searching for meaning inside systems they barely understand: capitalism, religion, masculinity, politics, desire, America itself. But PTA never looks down on them. Even at their most pathetic, he films them with tenderness. That’s what I felt most strongly here. Beneath the paranoia and absurdity, _One Battle After Another_ is filled with people desperately trying to connect with each other while trapped inside emotional worlds they no longer fully control. The film understands how exhausting modern life can feel — how people perform confidence while quietly unraveling underneath. And yet the movie never becomes cynical. There’s too much warmth in it for that. ## Final Thoughts At this point, it feels unnecessary to debate whether Paul Thomas Anderson belongs among the great American directors. He does. Not just because of the technical mastery, though there’s plenty of that here. Not just because of the performances, which are phenomenal across the board. But because his films feel alive in a way very few modern films do. Messy. Funny. Nervous. Tender. Overstimulated. Melancholic. Human. _One Battle After Another_ feels like a fever dream about modern America directed by someone who still believes cinema can capture the full chaos of being alive. ## A Note on the Backlash One thing that has fascinated me after watching _One Battle After Another_ is the reaction surrounding it. Some viewers have accused the film of sexualizing women or reproducing racial stereotypes. I understand where some of that discomfort comes from — PTA has never been a “safe” filmmaker, and his movies are often interested in desire, power, ego, masculinity, performance, and human ugliness in ways that can feel messy or provocative. But I also think there’s a growing tendency to confuse depiction with endorsement. This film sexualizes almost everyone. The most sexualized presence in the movie might be Sean Penn. If you missed out on that go view the beginning of the movie again. PTA films people as bodies moving through space — desirable, pathetic, dangerous, vulnerable, ridiculous. That gaze isn’t limited to women here. And beyond that, art has always explored sexuality because sexuality is inseparable from being human. Cinema without desire, attraction, vanity, lust, projection, fantasy, or physical presence would become emotionally sterile very quickly. Not every portrayal of sexuality needs to function as moral instruction. The same applies to the racial criticism surrounding the film. I fundamentally reject the idea that artists should only portray people who perfectly match their own identity category. If taken seriously, that logic would collapse much of art itself. Great filmmaking has always depended on imagination, empathy, observation, and the willingness to enter lives unlike your own. I would absolutely welcome more cultural crossing, not less. I’d love to see white directors make films deeply engaged with Black life if they approach it seriously and humanely. I’d love to see Black directors reinterpret traditionally “white” American stories. The entire history of cinema is built on artists learning from, responding to, borrowing from, and transforming each other’s worlds. What matters is not identity purity. What matters is whether the work feels alive, observant, emotionally truthful, and human. And whatever else people think about _One Battle After Another_, it undeniably feels human.
- ayayron16 november 2025Beware the semen demon
- Ray Hopkin7 dgn geledenWow, yet again, an absolute masterpiece by PTA. He really is one of the greatest directors ever, every one of his movies is a classic. DiCaprio, Penn, Del Toro, Infiniti, all perfect casting. Just such a well told story, and such a confident comment on today's society with the rise of the far right and the options that the left feel they need to make to stop the far right. Yet again, PTA creates a movie with great characters with deep motivations, who, through dark humour and intertwining storylines, find themselves fighting elements that are out of their control. Highly recommended.
- Joe Knapp30 maart 2026The "Best Picture" of the year is a piece of stinky poop. I watched One Battle After Another over the weekend. I ended up shutting it off after nearly two hours of overacting. I forced myself to finish it Sunday night. There's about 20 minutes of "action" near the end, but it's just cars going fast on a remote road in California. The oddest thing about this movie are the reviews. Critics loved it. Viewers hated it, except for some who said it was a "truth" tale about the "things that are going wrong in our time." NOTHING depicted in this movie is truth. On the one hand you have cult protesters who never define the object of their vile and violent hatred. On the other hand, you have Leonardo DiCaprio in a role he should have passed on. Sean Penn getting a medal of valor made me laugh so hard I nearly choked on my Cheerios. It is so bad I may delete it from my media server today to free up some space. Or, should I keep it as an example of a truly bad movie, like I did with Plan 9 From Outer Space?
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One Battle After Another Trivia
One Battle After Another was released on 24 september 2025.
One Battle After Another was directed by Paul Thomas Anderson.
One Battle After Another has a runtime of 2 u, 41 m.
One Battle After Another was produced by Adam Somner, Sara Murphy, Paul Thomas Anderson, Liam Briscoe.
De uitgebluste revolutionair Bob leeft samen met zijn energieke, zelfredzame dochter Willa ondergedoken op een rustige plek en gaat stoned en paranoïde door het leven. Als zijn aartsvijand na zestien jaar weer opduikt en Willa verdwijnt, moet de voormalige rebel zichzelf bij elkaar rapen om haar te vinden, waarbij zowel vader als dochter wordt geconfronteerd met de consequenties van zijn verleden.
The key characters in One Battle After Another are Bob (Leonardo DiCaprio), Col. Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn), Willa (Chase Infiniti).
One Battle After Another is rated 16.
One Battle After Another is a Misdaad, Drama, Thriller film.
One Battle After Another has an audience rating of 8.5 out of 10.
One Battle After Another had a budget of US$ 175 mln..
One Battle After Another has made US$ 209,4 mln. at the box office.