One Battle After Another

Paul Thomas Anderson: One Battle After Another (US 2025).

Une bataille après l'autre / Eine Schlacht nach der anderen / Una batalla tras otra / Una battaglia dopo l'altra.

    US 2025. PC: Ghoulardi Film Company. Warner Bros. presents. In association with Domain Entertainment. P: Paul Thomas Anderson, Sara Murphy, Adam Somner.

    D+SC: Paul Thomas Anderson - inspired by the novel Vineland (1990) by Thomas Pynchon. Cin: Michael Bauman - colour - VistaVision - released on 35 mm regular and horizontal - 70 mm regular and horizontal - D-Cinema - 1.50:1 (VistaVision) - 1.85:1 (regular). PD: Florencia Martin. AD: Andrew Max Cahn. Set dec: Anthony Carlino. Cost: Colleen Atwood. Makeup: Heba Thorisdottir. Hair: Ahou Mofid. SFX: Jeremy Hays. VFX: Crafty Apes / SSVFX. VFX: Laura J. Hill. M: Jonny Greenwood. Soundtrack: "Perfidia" (Alberto Domínguez, 1939). S: Christopher Scarabosio. ED: Andy Jurgensen. Casting: Cassandra Kulukundis.

    Cast from Wikipedia:

Leonardo DiCaprio as "Ghetto" Pat Calhoun / "Rocketman" / Bob Ferguson, a washed-up former member and explosive device expert of a revolutionary group known as the French 75

Sean Penn as Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw, a corrupt military officer who pursues the French 75

Benicio del Toro as Sergio St. Carlos, Willa's Karatedo teacher and a leader of the undocumented community in Baktan Cross

Regina Hall as Deandra / "Lady Champagne", a French 75 member

Teyana Taylor as Perfidia Beverly Hills, a French 75 member, Willa's mother and Pat's partner

Chase Infiniti as Willa Ferguson / Charlene Calhoun, Bob and Perfidia's daughter

Wood Harris as Laredo, a French 75 member

Alana Haim as "Mae West", a French 75 member

Paul Grimstad as Howard Sommerville / "Billy Goat" / "Gringo Coyote", a French 75 member

Shayna McHayle as "Junglepussy", a French 75 member

Tony Goldwyn as Virgil Throckmorton, a member of the Christmas Adventurers Club, a secret, wealthy cabal of white supremacists

John Hoogenakker as Tim Smith, a member of the Christmas Adventurers Club

Starletta DuPois as Grandma Minnie, Perfidia's mother

Eric Schweig as Avanti, a bounty hunter

D. W. Moffett as Bill Desmond, a member of the Christmas Adventurers Club

Kevin Tighe as Roy More, a member of the Christmas Adventurers Club

Jim Downey as Sandy Irvine, a member of the Christmas Adventurers Club

James Raterman as Colonel Danvers, Lockjaw's second-in-command

Dijon Duenas as "Talleyrand", a French 75 member

Dan Chariton as Comrade Josh, a French 75 member

Jon Beavers as 1776 James, a white nationalist gang member

Tisha Sloan as Willa's teacher

Jena Malone as the voice of the French 75 greeting code

    Filming dates: 21 Jan - 30 July 2024.

    Loc: Eureka (CA), Sacramento (CA), San Juan Bautista (CA), Stockton (CA), El Paso (TX). 

    162 min

    Premiere: 8 Sep 2025 Hollywood.

    Finnish premiere: 26 Sep 2025 - released by Warner Bros. Finland with Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Timo Porri / Hannele Vahtera.

    Viewed at Kinopalatsi 7, Helsinki, 26 Dec 2025.

IMDb storyline: "When their evil enemy resurfaces after 16 years, a group of ex-revolutionaries reunite to rescue the daughter of one of their own."

IMDb tagline: "Some search for battle, others are born into it..."

Greeting code: "What is time?"

Countersign: "Time does not exist, yet it controls us anyway".

AA: One Battle After Another reigns supreme on the year's best film lists. I hasten to see it before the year ends.

It is the saga of the desperate battle of survival of a revolutionary terrorist organization. When children are involved, things get complicated in ways we have also seen in Running on Empty (1988) and The Company You Keep (2012).

Unlike them, One Battle After Another is not a sober political thriller but a work of the cinema of the absurd. There is no discourse about the rebels' political agenda or motivation. The legacy of the terrorists is mostly an excuse to an action car chase movie. Besides violence, the movie is powered by sex. There are sex addicts both among the terrorists and the law enforcement authorities.

Anderson puts his ingredients in a blender and creates a mad current of energy that carries the preposterous tale.

The crazy spectacle is a framework for inflammatory conflicts in the society. The terrorist network is called French 75, and at the other extreme is Christmas Adventurers Club, a white supremacist organization run by men from the elite. In the final analysis, One Battle After Another is about the race war. The incarnation of the conflict is the "interracial" Chase Infiniti, whose mother is Perfidia and biological father Steven J. Lockjaw.

The star magnet of the enterprise is Leonardo Di Caprio, who keeps expanding his scope with roles like this. Sean Penn excels as Colonel Steven J. Lockjaw, the Inspector Javert of the saga. Jonny Greenwood creates a haunting and original score. Michael Bauman shot this in VistaVision - a format that had not been used for an entire feature film since the 1960s. I hope to be able to see One Battle After Another again for the VistaVision experience.

There is an epidemic of failing to give films Finnish titles. In the dialogue the relevant line, "Yksi taistelu toisensa jälkeen", was subtitled in Finnish. Why not give this remarkable movie that as the Finnish title, as well?