The hype leading into One Battle After Another seemed almost impossible to deliver and I am so happy to say that the hype was warranted. I think this film may very well be one of the best of the decade when it is all said in done because of how well it captures the essence of the time period in a way that the movies have yet to capture. I feel that Ari Aster was close to finally creating a great movie using the 2020s and beyond with Eddington (which I thoroughly enjoyed and will discuss in another post) but he didn’t quite hit the mark. I thought Aster’s satirical nihilism inside of Eddington made it a bit more edgy and made it not quite hit as home for me and I think that is where Paul Thomas-Anderson really struck gold with this film.
I think from a themes point of view Anderson kind of played with the same satirical approach to themes in our current world such as white supremacy, elitist conspiracies, and protests to name a few but he did it in a lot more charming way. The Christmas Adventurers club was one of the funniest running jokes I have seen in a film in a long time and the outright silliness discussing a real-world subject made it that much funnier. I think as somebody who has grown up in this post-2020s era this is the first movie that really does the themes right and captures it in a fun but self-aware way that I am sure many filmmakers are going to try to attack as time goes on.
Beyond the themes, I think the thing that really excels in this movie is the pure artistry of it. As time goes on and our technology gets better and filmmakers are able to better channel their vision in terms of beautiful backdrops I think movie-watchers are in for an absolute treat and I personally love where the art is going. In this movie particularly PTA utilized the skies’ blue hour for some magnificent shots both in the beginning raid sequence and during chase scenes later on in the movie. Another masterful show in cinematography was the utilization of the desert part of California for the battlegrounds of the whole third act (more on this later).
Unpacking the story and the characters themselves I can not ignore the fact Sean Penn absolutely stole the show. Penn’s portrayal of a goofy army colonel who secretly loves black women and is trying to cover his tracks of this dark secret so he can join the “Christmas Adventurers Club” and their white supremacist ideals is the perfect villain for a film capturing the outright abnormality and outlandishness of the past 5 years in America. Penn displayed every emotion so hilariously and well I 100% think he deserves an award for this film. Chase Infiniti and Leonardo DiCaprio also did amazing jobs with their characters and deserve credit too. Their portrayal of an (alleged) father and daughter relationship made the protagonists worth rooting for and the satisfaction of the ending so much more satisfying. The performances were definitely part of what made this such an epic monumental film.
I have to dedicate an entire paragraph to this solely because of how good it was; the car chase scene in the desert was maybe the best scene I have seen in the past 10 years. The use of the road (pictured below) to create suspense worked so well in my theatre that there were gasps across my theatre all throughout the sequence. The shock value of Tim (the Christmas Adventurer) shooting Col. Lockjaw after rolling the window down and driving off was simply an appetizer for the pure masterpiece of a scene we were all in for as viewers. The use of the twist, turns, and hills of the road to create tension was so smart and I’ll be talking about it until everyone around me is tired. Willa’s resolution to the chase was the smartest thing I’ve seen in a movie since Alex in Weapons. I saw somebody say that the road itself deserves some kind of award jokingly but I completely agree. Give the road a statue or an award or something thats how strongly I felt towards this scene.
I personally was so happy that there was an unpredictable ending to that scene where Willa saves herself instead of somebody swooning in. Her saving herself cemented her as a protagonist to remember instead of a damsel in distress which I love. Bob or even the mom could have swooped in at the end and saved her and it would’ve been like every other movie but I’m glad this took an original direction with it’s resolution.
Overall I give this movie a 10/10 and consider it my favorite movie of the year. This is also my favorite Paul Thomas-Anderson movie. I would imagine that this movie stays my favorite of the year narrowly beating out Zach Cregger’s Weapons. There will be some good candidates to beat this out such as Marty Supreme, Bugonia, and The Black Phone 2 but I’m not sure any will pass this. Either way we as viewers have had an amazing 2025 in cinema and it’s only up from here.