By Dennis Hartley
(Originally posted on Digby’s Hullabaloo on November 22, 2025)
Laureen Hobbs: The Ecumenical Liberation Army is an ultra left sect, creating political confusion with wildcat violence and pseudo-insurrectionary acts – which the Communist Party does not endorse. The American masses are not yet ready for open revolt. We would not want to produce a television show celebrating historically deviational terrorism.
Diana Christensen: Miss Hobbs, I’m offering you an hour of prime time television every week, into which you can stick whatever propaganda that you want.
– from Network (1976), written by Paddy Chayefsky
I suppose one could describe The French 75, a likewise fictional radical group that figures prominently in Paul Thomas Anderson’s sprawling action-thriller/sociopolitical satire One Battle After Another as “an ultra left sect, creating political confusion with wildcat violence and pseudo-insurrectionary acts”.
In an audacious, pulse-pounding opening sequence, the group, led by charismatic firebrand Perfida Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor, in a fearless performance) conducts a pre-dawn raid on San Diego’s Otey Mesa Detention Center, with the intention of freeing the immigrant detainees. Here we are also introduced to Perfida’s decidedly less disciplined compatriot and lover “Ghetto” Pat Calhoun (Leonardo DiCaprio), the group’s explosives specialist.
As a parting shot, Perfida humiliates the facility’s steely-eyed, reactionary military commander, Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn) ordering him to “get it up” while holding him at gunpoint. Final insult: she confiscates his service weapon and his hat. Palpably seething from the emasculation (despite being oddly aroused by the experience), he fixes her with a hateful stare and vows (like countless screen villains before him) that (in so many words) “we shall meet again”.
When they do meet again, Lockjaw (who is now heading up a special unit tasked with taking the French 75 down) literally gets her cornered as she is planting an explosive device in a bathroom stall. However, instead of arresting her, he tells her she can carry on with her group’s activities…as long she agrees to meet him for a motel room rendezvous. A dedicated revolutionary to the core, Perfida fights her rising gorge and appears to shrug it off as the cost of doing business.
Perfida’s steadfast commitment to the cause over all else is further evidenced after she gives birth to a daughter (at one point while she’s still with child, Pat confides to a group member that “it’s almost like she doesn’t even know she’s pregnant”). Pat (who also goes by the nickname “Rocketman”) is beginning to favor the pull of the nesting instinct over participating in the couple’s ever more risky political actions. He tries to gently persuade Perfida to do same, but to no avail.
And so Perfida abandons Pat and baby Charlene to continue the fight. Her streak ends when a bank robbery goes sideways and she fatally shoots a guard. To avoid spoilers, I’ll just say she exits the narrative at this point.
Flash-forward to present-day. Pat and his now (precocious) 16 year-old daughter (Chase Infiniti) have gone underground, living off-the-grid in a rural California burg with the assumed names “Bob” and “Willa”, respectively. Perhaps understandably, Bob lives in a constant state of anxiety and paranoia. He self-medicates by staying baked most of the time.
Inevitably, that day every ex-radical in hiding dreads comes to pass-The Man is at the door, and Bob has to get his ass out of Dodge, posthaste. The Man, in this case, is the family’s old nemesis, Steven J. Lockjaw (now a full colonel). Unfortunately, this happens while Willa is out with her friends. Bob reluctantly has to leave without her. With help from his “sensei” Sergio St. Carlos (Benicio del Toro) Bob is eventually able to escape Lockjaw’s clutches and hits the road to find his daughter.
It’s tempting to call Anderson’s film “one chase after another”, as it doesn’t seem to pause very often for a breather in the course of its substantial 162-minute running time. Upon a second viewing (which I enjoyed even more than the first) I detected more nuance. After all, Anderson isn’t exactly revered as a premier “action director”.
While the chase scenes are expertly choreographed, breathtakingly filmed (in vintage VistaVision, no less) and genuinely exciting, it’s the little details that I love; e.g. DiCaprio toking up and reciting along with the dialog as he watches The Battle of Algiers (I also found myself laughing a lot more during the second viewing).
That’s not the only cinematic touchstone here; Anderson’s film evokes the anarchic political spirit of late 60s/early 70s films like Punishment Park, The Strawberry Statement, Zabriskie Point, and Getting Straight. The third act strongly recalls “long chase” classics like Vanishing Point and The Sugarland Express (especially with DP Michael Baumen’s expansive framing).
Anderson adapted his screenplay from Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel Vineland, but he has obviously updated a number of elements to reflect America in 2025 (even viewers who only casually follow politics will pick up on that right out of the gate). I referenced Sidney Lumet’s Network at the top of my review; Anderson’s film has a very similar streak of dark satire at its core. There’s also a whiff of Dr. Strangelove; “Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw” feels like a nod to “Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper”.
The cast is uniformly excellent, but DiCaprio and Penn are truly at the peak of their powers here. Penn, in particular has created one of the most unique heavies in recent memory; an amalgam of Colonel Kilgore and every jumped-up, overcompensating Greg Bovino with Little Man Syndrome currently prowling America’s cities whilst invested with the power of the state.
Even if you choose to eschew any political subtext, One Battle After Another can certainly be enjoyed as a piece of pure, exhilarating film making for grownups, and is the best film I’ve seen in 2025.
(Currently in theaters and available for PPV rental).