One Battle After Another (Photo – Warner Bros.)
Having been disappointed by 2014’s Inherent Vice, I didn’t approach Paul Thomas Anderson’s second attempt to film a Thomas Pynchon novel with the same enthusiasm I had the first time.
One Battle After Another
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson – 2025
Reviewed by Garrett Rowlan
It didn’t help that Pynchon’s 1990 Vineland is now 2025’s One Battle After Another, a title that feels more at home on any action movie since, well, 1990.
Despite my reservations, I really enjoyed the film, and its 162-minute running time didn’t feel oppressive.
Big-screen immersion and star power carried the day. Leonardo DiCaprio plays a former terrorist/revolutionary turned middle-aged doper, far removed from his days as a bomb-making expert for an underground squad called French 75. He handles both the comedy and action scenes well. Benicio Del Toro oozes cool charm as a smuggler and judo instructor. But the real kudos go to Sean Penn, bulked up and perpetually scowling as the tormented Col. Lockjaw. Penn embraces his role so fully that what begins as parody transforms into a convincing, quasi-Terminator stalker. There’s also a touch of comedy in his performance.
The comedy and the name Col. Lockjaw are pretty much all that remains of Thomas Pynchon in the movie. Pynchon’s novels (though I confess I haven’t read the last two) often feature characters with strange names, so Col. Lockjaw feels like a sort of homage. The humor in the film follows suit. It’s worth noting, however, that in the final credits, the movie is listed as “inspired by Pynchon’s book.”
There are a few anomalies, at least in my judgment. None of the characters seem to age at all over the 16 years between the movie’s extended prologue and the main action. Speaking of the prologue, it features a series of bombings—huge explosions that never seem to harm an innocent bystander, stacking the odds in favor of the good guys. As for the bad guys, there are the cops in fatigues and helmets, but the real villains are the Christmas Adventurer’s Club, a sort of star chamber whose insistence on racial purity struck me as more fitting for a WWII movie than for an era where profit, dividends, and the exploitation of people are the primary goals, especially in the corporate offices and the labyrinthine lairs of the California-based antagonists. Or am I being naïve?
Regardless, One Battle After Another is the director’s best film since The Master, and one of the better films I’ve seen this year.
> Playing at Regency Academy Cinemas, Regal Paseo, IPIC Theaters, Regal Edwards Alhambra Renaissance, Landmark Pasadena Playhouse, AMC Atlantic Times Square 14, AMC Santa Anita 16, Regal UA La Canada, AMC The Americana at Brand 18, and LOOK Dine-In Cinemas Monrovia.
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