By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring: Benicio Del Toro | Chase Infiniti | Leonardo DiCaprio | Regina Hall | Sean Penn | Teyana Taylor
Year: 2025
Running time: 156
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt30144839/
Diane says: “Hip hip hooray for PT Anderson! His new ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER is an intense thrill ride (like BUGONIA is intense, but you’re happier afterwards). Deserving of a screenplay nom for updating Pynchon’s Vineland (once I get my hands on a copy to see how much of America’s current state Pynchon foretold). Soundtrack could take you on a ride all by itself: insistent piano pounding almost gave me a heart attack, but there’s pop and Christmas carols and…
“Sean Penn is superb as an ambitious, ambivalent military man, DiCaprio as a sadly paranoid former revolutionary, and del Toro as a solid rock of the community–all action, few words.
“So much more to like (the way Anderson uses slips in time), but I’ll leave the rest to others. 5 cats.”
Laks replies: “Thank you for writing up a review Diane! Unfortunately, I left the film feeling underwhelmed and borderline annoyed, despite being a Paul Thomas Anderson fan.”
Garrett says: “Really impressed by this film. Studios should give PTA big giant bags of cash more often. Perfect for the moment we are currently in. The politics of the film are present throughout in a smart, digestible way that does not feel like a lecture from on high. The film, at its core, is about a father’s love for his daughter. Sean Penn & Bencicio delToro steal the show. There’s like 50 quotable lines from the film. A thirty minute car chase. Best in-theater experience I’ve had since Uncut Gems. The crowd audibly gasped or shouted at least twice. This is why we go to the movies. Five cats plus a few small beers in a beat up red sedan with DiCaprio and delToro.”
Jeff says: “As a retelling of Vineland (of which very little remains) or, more generally, as emblematic of Pynchon, it came off as parody, a caricature, a tawdry imitation. According to Anderson, Pynchon gave it his blessing, so, despite my misgivings, I’ll have to live with the film on the basis that Pynchon approved. Given that he parodied himself on the Simpsons, maybe it makes sense, that, despite the aura of gravitas enshrouding his works, he doesn’t take himself too seriously.
“As an Anderson film, it had, like that vertigo-inducing car chase, its ups and downs. I liked the opening sequence. If Vineland were updated to our time, I think it would certainly fit. It felt more like Pynchon than anywhere else in the movie. I liked the underground railroad arc. But it also infuriated me. That interminable harangue over DiCaprio not knowing the final password. OMG!, I was tired of it halfway through the first one. That it seemed lifted, verbatim, from Punch Drunk Love made the film, at that point, seem a parody of Anderson himself.
“I thought the women got short shrift, none more than The Sisters of the Brave Beaver, who, given the firepower they brandished, deserved their own showdown with Lockjaw. Absent that, the reason for their existence seems to be to serve merely as an awkward attempt at an in joke. There’s a Brooklyn strip club in Bleeding Edge called Joie de Beavre.3.5 cats”
Michael says: “I will say this film drew me in more than I thought it would and surprised me. There was nothing about this film that made me eager to see it. I don’t like action films, and I don’t enjoy Leonardo DiCaprio, but I do generally enjoy PTA’s films, and about halfway through it’s lengthier than needed run time, where I was pretty sure I wasn’t enjoying myself, things turned around I started to begrudgingly enjoy myself. Sure, it a pretty superficial way, but still, I walked out having a slightly positive feeling about the films, so that’s a good thing. I really didn’t like the first third, and I think PTA should avoid trying to write about black women activists. The father/daughter aspect of the film worked best for me. 2 1/2 cats.”