One Battle After Another (2025)
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
Washed-up revolutionary Bob exists in a state of stoned paranoia, surviving off-grid with his spirited, self-reliant daughter, Willa. When his evil nemesis resurfaces after 16 years and she goes missing, the former radical scrambles to find her, father and daughter both battling the consequences of his past.
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91 films that influenced One Battle After Another
What critics say influenced One Battle After Another
What it does do, however, is answer the question: “What if we gave one of the most talented filmmakers out there a blockbuster-sized budget and let him shoot the absolute shit out of The Big Lebowski-meets-Mission: Impossible?”
…the movie is like if Taken and The Big Lebowski had a baby…
…the fact that he plays most of the back half in a bathrobe makes Big Lebowski comparisons somewhat inevitable, as does the uproarious scene (featured in the trailers) when he attempts to make contact with his handlers, and cannot remember the damn passwords and spycraft in the slightest.
Pat/Bob plays like a variation of “The Dude” from The Big Lebowski (1998)…
It’s hilarious to see DiCaprio work his own twist on the stoner Jeff Bridges immortalized as the Dude in “The Big Lebowski.”
DiCaprio channels “The Big Lebowski’s” shambolic Dude. From his ever-present bathrobe and slightly bewildered facial expressions to his loyalty to friends and family and resilience the star’s take on Bob is a fun and funny homage to Jeff Bridges’s iconic performance.
(*cough* Eddington cough*) Instead of emphasizing, "Hey, everything sucks now,"…
Like Eddington, Friendship, and Weapons, One Battle After Another is one of the best movies of the year because it so deftly diagnoses America…
Earlier this year, Ari Aster’s equally timely Eddington focused on how flawed both sides of the American aisle can be.
It succeeds in obtaining thematic symmetry with its focus on political extremism, whereas someone like Ari Aster nearly obtains it but falls a little short in his recent film Eddington (2025)—a cinematic retrospective of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Yet when Ari Aster attempted it earlier this year with Eddington, a dark political comedy about a town gone mad during the COVID-19 epidemic, it felt at times like staring directly into the sun, feeling so blinding (and unpleasant) that any perspective was hard to come by.
Like Eddington, One Battle After Another is the work of someone so comfortable in their bubble that it believes a generalized fart in all directions is an effective form of satire.
…it’s a late ‘60s/early ‘70s West Coast throwback that channels a gutsy female Black Panthers vibe, Bullitt-style car chases…
…one almost wonders if Anderson secretly wants to remake Bullitt.
…directed with such verve that one almost wonders if Anderson secretly wants to remake Bullitt.
It might not reach the heights of Bullitt or The French Connection, but it has its own thrilling, unpredictable energy.
One Battle After Another isn’t pure action, nor is it pure comedy — it’s a deft blend of both, tonally similar to The Wolf of Wall Street (ironically also starring DiCaprio).
DiCaprio often appears as a bumbling hero in the vein of Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplin, even if he shows a capacity for delivering snarky one-liners not seen since his work in “The Wolf of Wall Street.”
…occasionally recalls the more tiresome aspects of Martin Scorsese’s 2013 The Wolf of Wall Street…
It’s an incredibly physical performance that has shades of his work in The Wolf of Wall Street and Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood, yet showcases facets of his talent that haven’t been seen on screen before.
DiCaprio is always great when he gets to be funny in a sad, pathetic way (see: "The Wolf of Wall Street" and "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood")…
Imagine his drugged-out fight and drive home from The Wolf of Wall Street extended to three hours and you get the idea of what to expect.
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It’s no coincidence that a key sequence is set in Monument Valley, a location that popped up in “The Searchers,” “Stagecoach,” and “She Wore A Yellow Ribbon” among others.
Classics ranging from John Ford’s “The Searchers” (1956) to Sidney Lumet’s “Running on Empty” (1988) may have motivated Anderson in making “One Battle,”…
But the biggest influence I want to draw attention to is to a film in the running for the greatest American movie of all time: John Ford’s The Searchers (1956)…
…or the Coen’s No Country for Old Men…
There are strong echoes of “No Country for Old Men” and hints of “Goodfellas.”
One Battle After Another is one of those rare examples – think Pulp Fiction, No Country for Old Men, Sicario – where nary a moment is wasted, each scene smoothly leading to the next…
What could have been a standard Taken-esque snatch-and-grab thriller takes on towering dimension in PTA’s visionary hands.
…the movie is like if Taken and The Big Lebowski had a baby…
This is not some kind of Taken situation, the helpless daughter who must be saved…
PTA decided to film using the large-format VistaVision, similar to how The Brutalist was shot.
…shot in VistaVision, just like last year’s Best Picture nominee, “The Brutalist.”
…like The Brutalist, shot on the antique VistaVision format…
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Yes, this has the propulsion of paranoia thrillers from the 1970s, such as The French Connection…
It might not reach the heights of Bullitt or The French Connection, but it has its own thrilling, unpredictable energy.
He even sneaks in a visual homage to Punch-Drunk Love, attaching the camera to a car door as it slams shut—a playful wink to longtime fans.
Anderson is at his best when he takes his subjects seriously ("Punch-Drunk Love," "The Master")…
One Battle After Another is Anderson’s version of an action movie the way the 2002’s Punch-Drunk Love was his version of an Adam Sandler comedy.
From the shaky and grounded sequences in Punch Drunk Love to the plethora of one-takes in only his second feature, Boogie Nights, the foundation was always there…
I’ve only watched three of his ten feature films: Punch-Drunk Love, Phantom Thread, and this one.
Anderson’s deft and disturbing studies of glass-shattering emotional violence (“Punch-Drunk Love”)…