“One battle after another” makes a scathing criticism of today’s society

Bob (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Perfidia (Teyana Taylor) are part of the revolutionary antifascist group 75 French. Their mission? Change the world from the border between the United States and Mexico through acts of domestic terrorism, especially in defense of immigrants. But everything goes wrong when Perfidia is captured by his archenemy, Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn). This event, which will mark your destination forever, is the starting point of One battle after anothernew film by filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson who is already playing in Brazilian theaters.

Sixteen years later, perfidy is gone, and Bob – often drugged and paranoid – lives isolated from any revolutionary feat, dedicated to the creation of his teenage daughter, Willa (Chase Infiniti). Meanwhile, Lockjaw aspires joining some kind of elitist and supremacist Masonic organization. His past, however, threatens to surface and put everything at risk, so he decides to eliminate any trace of evidence. Then Bob involuntarily will be forced to resume his old struggle.

Paul Thomas Anderson loves extreme and extravagant characters and stories. One battle after another It is no exception. In it, the director of Licorice Pizza, Ghost plot e Magnolia adapt the romance Vinelandby Thomas Pynchon-another extravagance-turning it into a scathing critique of today’s society. And does it with merit. Anderson gets what seemed impossible: to take Pynchon’s chaotic and overflowing satire to the big screen without losing irony or depth. Despite the nearly three hours, the director maintains the narrative pulse very well, although the first part suffers from the rude and obscene sexual mood between Perfidia and Lockjaw, which little contributes to the rest of the film.

Crazy plot succession

Em One battle after anotherthere is intrigue, comedy and action. There is something of the surrealism of the coen brothers, the comedy starring Robert de Niro Midnight escape (1988) and the severity of the recent Civil war (2024). In fact, we come across one crazy plot after another (sometimes too absurd, like the warrior nuns that cultivate marijuana), but all very well assembled.

Anderson’s movie is a true cocktail that works not only thanks to the tumbered script and ubiquitous soundtrack of Jonny Greenwood, guitarist of the band Radiohead and regular collaborator of the filmmaker, but also the cast. Leonardo DiCaprio is magnificent as Bob (a role that resembles his Dr. Randall Mindy de Don’t look up). Also shining famous supporting actors, such as Benicio Del Toro, and the hitherto almost unknown Chase Infiniti, who makes Bob’s daughter.

In fact, the greatest asset of One battle after another It is the overwhelming personality of its characters: nothing in them is ideal, everything is full of flaws, and this imperfection gives great strength to Anderson’s script. This, as well as the director’s ability to create a Hitchcockian atmosphere, especially present in the long final road sequence, a tense and disturbing climax that encapsulates the best of his cinema. It may not be your most complete movie, but it is one of the most free and challenging, capable of fascinating and disconcerting to the same measure.

© 2025 Acepons. Published with permission. Original in Spanish.

• One battle after another
• 2025
• 161 minutes
• Suitable for over 16
• On theaters