This article was originally published on the DIASPORA Newsletter on September 18, 2025. Read and subscribe here!
SPOILER ALERT: This article contains minor details about One Battle After Another.
It’s not even 10 minutes into the movie, and a revolutionary named Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor) is forcing bigot Captain Steven Lockjaw (Sean Penn) to give himself an erection at gunpoint, while her fellow revolutionaries from a collective called the French 75 free immigrant detainees.
There’s also one point in the movie where they find themself in at a rendezvous point that is a weed farm run by nuns.
I was in.
From the mind of Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another casts a wide thematic net to capture the essence of love, loyalty, and commitment during the shittiest times of revolution and change, first through the gaze of Perfidia and then through the lens of Ghetto Pat aka “Bob” (Leonardo DiCaprio), her partner in crime.
After the freeing of immigrant detainees (talk about being timely) and the erection encounter with Lockjaw, we are witness to the Bonnie and Clyde power of Perfidia and Bob. She’s a sharp-shootin’ and strategic warrior, and he’s a clever demolition man who is a master with explosives. They’re unstoppable.
They start a family, but after Perfidia gives birth to a baby girl, she goes into a downward spiral of depression and searches for meaning in her life, and after a Set It Off-style bank robbery goes off the rails, she is detained and then disappears. Bob and their baby girl are forced to go into hiding… and this is where the movie really begins.
Fast forward to the future, and Bob and Willa (the teen version played by Chase Infiniti) are living in a small town. Bob has gone from inspired revolutionary to overprotective aggro-stoner father, and Willa is just trying to live her teen life with her non-binary friends. When Lockjaw finds out where they are, he makes it a mission to find them – but it’s not for the reason you think.
I really want to know what Paul Thomas Anderson wants us to take away from this movie. It’s unlike any of his other films and feels like the most commercial of any of his movies I’ve ever seen. Perhaps it’s because it just felt too… real?
Anderson’s previous films, such as Inherent Vice, There Will Be Blood, Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love, and Boogie Nights, have an elevated sense of cinematic fantasy to them. There’s a glossy allure to his previous work that is lacking in One Battle After Another. That’s not a bad thing.
One Battle After Another feels grounded. It digs its heels into the dirt even through gonzo, off-center “should I be laughing at this?” moments – a lot of them with the character of Penn’s Lockjaw: an avatar for the white cis male monster, as portrayed in media. Even in the final moments in the film he ends up trapped in a “cage” of sorts as a deformed monster.
He’s a horrible human being. He’s a festering prolapse of an axe wound. He probably doesn’t think he is a racist or misogynist. And I don’t think he says any queerphobic remarks, but I’m sure Lockjaw blames the LGBTQ community for the downfall of society.
Lockjaw is sexually obsessed with Perfidia. He sexualizes and objectifies her. Yes, Perfidia does it right back to him; although he’s the one in power, so in this case, he’s the asshole. He abuses his power. He’s the embodiment of January 6 energy.
But he craves more power and approval from his peers as he yearns to be a member of the all-powerful, all-white, all-old, all-male, all-privileged, all-wealthy, all-absurd member of the Christmas Adventurers Club.
Penn is too damn good at bringing Lockjaw to life. In fact, all these white men are TOO damn good at bringing this specific brand of white men to life. They are so good that it makes me raise my eyebrows.
His thoughts about working with Woody Allen aside (ew), Penn is a good actor. You can’t take that away from him. This character doesn’t give him any brownie points. In fact, none of these white male characters do any of these gentlemen any favors. If anything, this movie is likely to stir up more ire when it comes to ICE, law enforcement, treatment of immigrants, and white, rich men in power. If Paul Thomas Anderson was looking to push liberal buttons with these satirical white characters who are getting their Jockeys in a bunch while hunting down a biracial girl, he succeeded. It feels like he is satirizing them and teasing the left at the same time.
Anderson kicks the story off through the point of view of Perfidia, and then it quickly shifts to that of Bob when he and Willa go into hiding. It would have been far more interesting to see Perfidia’s full journey, but alas, this is Leo’s movie.
The time we spend with Taylor as Perfidia is treasured. She gives the character as much dimension as she can with the little cinematic real estate she is given. A graduation from her stellar performance in A.V. Rockwell’s A Thousand and One, Taylor’s presence is big, and her raw talent is felt through the celluloid – I just wish I saw more of it.
There was one particular moment in the film, after she gives birth to Willa, where she is in a vulnerable post-partum state. She’s trying to find meaning in her life again. Perfidia is jealous of her own child because she feels that Bob loves Willa more than her. She wants to have purpose again. Perfidia wants to feel that familiar Bonnie and Clyde energy flow through her veins – energy that was there long before she had Willa.
The One Battle After Another I was seeking was about a revolutionary mother getting her groove back. Unfortunately, we didn’t get that – and that is perfectly fine because this is not my movie. It’s Paul Thomas Anderson’s movie, and he could do whatever he wants. What he made was this sharp and focused film that shakes the status quo and surprisingly plays swiftly for its 170-minute run time. It’s a film about the value and consequences of revolutionary acts, both good and bad. In a time when acts of good trouble are paramount and times call for radical revolutionary behavior amidst tyrannical abuses of power, a movie like One Battle After Another couldn’t be more perfect. The title says it all. And there is something wildly cathartic about seeing Perfidia and Bob lead a group of revolutionaries as they free immigrant detainees from the claws of authorities. It’s comforting to see Benicio del Toro’s quietly eccentric sensei character protect undocumented immigrants. And there are a lot of timely images Anderson puts on that screen that can be triggering, but he does it in a way that reminds you we can fight against it.
But that’s not the meat of the movie. In the simplest narrative terms, One Battle After Another is a movie about a father trying to reunite with his daughter. It also feels like Paul Thomas Anderson’s most commercial film yet. That’s the candy-coated narrative shell of the movie, and it is quite tasty, but in this case, it could have afforded to be more enriching and less saccharine.
Some Internet pundits have criticized Anderson for his movies leaning very white. He’s even got himself into hot water with one particular scene from Licorice Pizza that did not make the AAPI community happy. That said, it was nice to see Anderson diversify with actors Teyana Taylor, Regina Hall, and Chase Infiniti.
Here we have three Black women in three prominent roles in what is sure to be an awards season contender. All of them delivered incredible performances, and I wouldn’t expect anything less, but I did expect more. The three women of color are, indeed, strong characters. They have agency over who they are. They are fully fleshed out characters and given dimension and purpose. However, they just don’t seem to win. Perfidia is arrested and is basically at the whim of Lockjaw, but eventually dies off. Hall plays Deandra of the French 75. She’s the protector of the group. The one with a good head on her shoulders, but in the end, she takes the fall. Willa ends up being a survivor — but this is after she gets treated like shit, thrown around, and essentially treated like the “McGuffin” of the film despite being a badass like her mom.
Think of it this way: it’s as if a white male filmmaker, known for white male centric storytelling gave himself the challenge of writing three multi-dimensional Black women characters into a story set in a time of revolution. This film is what you would expect him to deliver. The intention is great, but execution leaves much room for improvement.
The film had PTA’s signature throughout. He has a sense of play and humor that balances out his thoughtful way of serving us lyrical exposition. It’s biting and sometimes bizarre, but he always manages to get his point across.
There’s no doubt that Anderson is one of the quintessential modern filmmakers of the 20th and 21st centuries. He has a tone and even visual vocabulary that is distinct to him, and he tends to be bold with his storytelling style. One Battle After Another is a fresh version of Paul Thomas Anderson that makes me curious enough, but it’ll make cinephiles drool. He throws caution to the wind, slaps some gloss on it while diversifying his cinematic repertoire. With his latest gonzo revolutionary action dramedy (it’s almost genreless), Anderson proves he isn’t scared to play with the dials of absurdity and satire in the world of drama.
