2025 movies have made for strong award season buzz, including Paul Thomas Anderson’s newest film, “One Battle After Another.” The movie stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Bob Ferguson, a bumbling revolutionary formerly known as Pat Calhoun, Teyana Taylor as fellow revolutionary Perfidia Beverly Hills and Sean Penn as antagonist Stephen J. Lockjaw.
“One Battle After Another” is a loose adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel “Vineland,” though many characters’ names and races have been changed.
DiCaprio’s character is a member of the fictional French 75, a leftist militant group that conducts operations against migrant detention centers, attacks politicians’ offices, robs banks and attacks the power grid.
Pat meets Perfidiah during his younger days with the French 75, and they quickly fall for each other, with Perfidiah particularly characterized as sexually aroused by her involvement in revolutionary acts.
The two late have a daughter, Charlene, played by Chase Infiniti. Eventually needing to go on the run, Pat takes Charlene, and off they go, at which point they assume the identities of Bob and Willa Ferguson.
Bob is portrayed as a rather bad revolutionary, often strung along by the Black women of the film and Sergio St. Carlos, who Bob refers to as “Sensei,” played by Benicio Del Toro.
The brief focus on the Black women of “One Battle After Another” has been the main critique I’ve seen of the film.
“One Battle After Another” characterizes Perfidiah as overly sexual, as well as her decision to abandon Charlene, and its stilted character of “Junglepussy,” who is played by a real-life rapper of the same name.
I think much debate is still to come about this aspect of the movie, as it determines how progressive the movie actually is. Personally, I view these two factions of the movie as foils to Bob.
There is intentional juxtaposition of how Bob, Sensei and the Sisters of the Brave Beaver handle imminent siege by the federal government. Whereas Bob cannot remember the passcodes to the sequence to get the rendezvous location, Sensei calmly walks through organizing the evacuation of his community.
Similar calmness is seen in the Sisters of the Brave Beaver when they are about to be raided as well. That said, the movie’s little screen time for its Black and Hispanic characters typecasts Peridiah into the role of the oversexualized Black woman.
Despite a slew of critical praise, the movie is slated to be a dud at the box office due to its $175 million budget.
“One Battle After Another” has many technically amazing scenes, deep themes and characters, and a lot to discuss, all hallmarks of a great movie, or at the very least one capable of inspiring good conversation, so I would highly recommend watching it. 5/5 stars.
