One Battle After Another (2025) Review: A Wild, Weird and Fun Action Ride

One Battle After Another is a wild, funny, unpredictable film that mixes sharp satire, brilliant performances, and some genuinely impressive action.

Some movies follow the rules, and some movies look at the rules, laugh, and do whatever they want.

One Battle After Another definitely falls into the second category.

Plot

A washed-up former radical, Bob (Leonardo DiCaprio), goes on the run with his daughter, Willa, when his extremist nemesis, Colonel Steven Lockjaw (Sean Penn), resurfaces sixteen years after the dissolution of their militant rebel group.

Good Points

• It clearly doesn’t care about playing things safe, and is a very confident film.

• The cast are great, especially Leonardo DiCaprio and Sean Penn.

• The humor treats ridiculous situations completely seriously.

• The action has a lot of creativity.

• Jonny Greenwood’s score.

Bad Points

• It can feel like a lot at once, with so many ideas happening.

• The pacing is a tad uneven at times.

• The unusual style is the movie’s biggest strength, but also its biggest weakness.

My Thoughts on One Battle After Another

A strange movie that takes big swings

I really enjoyed One Battle After Another I have to say, and while it did also have some moments where I wasn’t really sure what direction it was heading, it’s a film that always keeps you interested in finding out - weird, funny, intense, and full of personality.

If you’re looking for a straight forward action type movie though where everything is neatly explained and every moment exists just to move the story along, this is not it, but if you want one that fully embraces its strange sense of humor, its unpredictable energy, and its willingness to get a little ridiculous, I am sure you will like it what this has to offer.

I can definitely see why some people might find it all a bit overwhelming though, because there are moments where the movie feels like it has five different ideas happening at once, but it’s an incredibly confident film, and that confdience in trying to be a bit strange is what I think makes it a bit memorable, with a real sense of fun running through the entire film.

And even when it does get serious,you still have this feeling that the movie knows exactly how unusual it is and how unusual it exactly wants to get.

Leonardo DiCaprio leads with a different kind of hero

Leonardo DiCaprio can pretty much not really do too much wrong whatever film he is in, and here is no different, where he manages to balance the humor and heart really well, and the movie definitely benefits from having someone who can handle both sides.

He fully leans into all the awkwardness, the stress, and the uncertainty of the character and everything around him, and is also willing to look ridiculous doing so, while bringing a ton of emotion to the role as well, as behind the comedy and the strange situations, there’s a genuine warmth that is very hard to not like.

The rest of the cast bring a ton of personality too

To be fair, the entire cast understand the strange tone of One Battle After Another and bring an A game.

Sean Penn is absolutely fantastic, giving a performance that is intimidating, hilarious, and completely unpredictable all at once, where he goes big with the role, but he knows exactly how far to take it, and he will make you laugh one second and make you uncomfortable the next.

Chase Infiniti is another standout, and she brings a lot of confidence and personality, with a screen presence that makes her scenes immediately more interesting., which is also a great contrast to DiCaprio’s more nervous and messy energy.

Teyana Taylor too also brings humor, intensity, and emotion really well, and she adds a lot of life to the movie, fitting perfectly into the film’s unusual style.

The humor finds the absurd in everything

The film definitely has a very particular sense of humor, which I loved, and it isn’t afraid to make you laugh at moments where you might feel like you probably shouldn’t, and a lot of the comedy comes from how seriously the film treats some completely ridiculous situations.

The characters are often seen behaving as if everything is perfectly normal, even when the world around them is anything but normal, so that contrast creates a lot of the funniest moments, and I also liked that the humor wasn’t forced, which is one of my pet peeves.

There’s also a bit of smartness behind the jokes, as the film uses humor to look at serious topics, but it also avoids feeling like it’s giving a speech, where it’s much more interested in making you think while you’re laughing, so the satire feels that much sharper but not lazy.

The action has real style and creativity

The action scenes are are simply put, pure energy - creative, and filled with moments that feel carefully put together, especially the chase sequences which are excellent, featuring a real sense of movement and imagination, and they also don’t feel like typical action scenes that you’ve seen repeated in dozens of other movies, which is nice.

You will probably also notice that the action also has its own personality, where it matches the weird tone of the rest of the film, intense, but it’s also strange and sometimes funny, which fits everything else happening.

Jonny Greenwood’s score

The music deserves a mention, because it is fantastic, and Jonny Greenwood’s score brings a lot of energy and gives the movie an extra layer of personality.

The soundtrack is loud, unpredictable, and helps build the mood and makes certain moments feel even more memorable, contributing to the experience rather than just fading into the background.

And that’s always what the best soundtracks accomplish.

A bit overwhelming at times…

The biggest weakness of One Battle After Another is that it can sometimes become a little exhausting, simply because the movie has so many ideas, jokes, and tonal changes that there were moments where I felt like it needed to slow down for a second.

The shifts between comedy, drama, and action also felt a little uneven at times, and while ,ost of the time, I enjoyed the unpredictability, but there were certainly moments where the transitions felt a little too awkward.

I also think some people may struggle with how much the film expects them to simply go along with it, as it doesn’t always explain every detail, and it isn’t interested in making everything simple.

For me, that was mostly part of the experience, but I understand why that could frustrate some people.

Final Verdict

One Battle After Another is the kind of movie that takes risks, and while there are moments where it did become a little too much, I still had a great time with it.

It’s messy, but it’s the kind of mess that makes a movie interesting, so for me, One Battle After Another is absolutely worth watching if you haven’t already.

Trailer

Film Credits

Directed and written by Paul Thomas Anderson

Based on Vineland by Thomas Pynchon

Produced by Adam Somner, Sara Murphy and Paul Thomas Anderson

Starring - Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall. Teyana Taylor and Chase Infiniti

Cinematographyby Michael Bauman

Edited by Andy Jurgensen

Music by Jonny Greenwood

Running time - 162 minutes

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