One Battle After Another (2025) Review

Paul Thomas Anderson

The husband of Maya Rudolph is a cool enough director that most people just call him by his initials, PTA. I think the magic of PTA’s arsenal of original films is that each has the chance to connect with different audience members. The odds of you liking all his films equally is low, but the chance you deeply resonate with one is high. For me, that film was Punch Drunk Love, but I know from Letterboxd that all of his features are in someone’s top 4. Many people are obsessed with There Will Be Blood, Phantom Thread, and Magnolia in particular.

After 9 feature films have captured many a cinephile’s interest, enter One Battle After Another, PTA’s biggest film to date in every way. My introduction to this film was the hype. I went to see it in theaters as early as I physically could, but not before I was bombarded by rave reviews. It was already guaranteed to win Best Picture at the Oscars before it hit wide release. I am not sure how everyone knows this already, but it’s etched in stone. So could any film live up to this hype? Maybe Dune Part 2, but that’s the exception to the rule. After a rewatch, I remain uncertain about its core story and message. This makes me wonder if I’m missing something crucial or if the film simply does not hit that hard for me. The persistent hype intensifies this confusion and pushes me to clarify why the film’s meaning feels elusive despite my appreciation for its craft.

While I am confused overall, I am not confused about Benicio Del Toro. His contrasting dynamic with the loose cannon of Bob got many laughs out of me. The whole Baktan Cross protest sequence is loads of tense fun. The final car chase is undeniably unlike any I have seen and was exhilarating. Depending on which moment of the film I focus on, my feelings change.

What am I missing?

To illustrate my confusion, let’s remember the film discourse surrounding last year’s film Civil War from Alex Garland. Similarly, that movie feels very political and contemporary without talking about specific politics or groups, both creating realistic fictional worlds that mirror our own. However, many individuals did not like Civil War, saying it was hollow and came close to saying things but didn’t. They both use politics as a backdrop to tell a more personal story, in one case a father/daughter story, and in the horrors of war and what it’s like to be a war journalist in the other. Why is One Battle After Another praised for doing the same thing as Civil War when it comes to the broader themes and messages of the films?

I saw One Battle After Another with friends and family, and everyone I talked to in person about this had a hard time telling me what the story meant. We agreed the performances and technical aspects were a standout. When we tried to dissect the meaning of the first and third acts, which had more to do with the main characters and their story, that did not lead to any satisfying conclusions about what the film was trying to say. Some of the most liked comments on Letterboxd talk about One Battle After Another being “The generation-defining blockbuster” and lots of comparisons to Star Wars. If this movie was supposed to be a take-down of fascism, it was a bit lost on me. Andor and Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery from this year had better take-downs of fascism, in my opinion. The former is a serious takedown, and the latter is more on the satirical comedic side. One Battle After Another falls flat somewhere in between.

Maybe it’s not about fascism but more about the nature of rebellion; if that is the case, it is unclear. From what I can tell, the film is not glorifying the type of rebellion the French 75 were a part of (bombings, robbing banks, freeing people at borders); they seem to do more harm than good. Especially as their actions lead directly to most of their deaths. The more compelling form of rebellion to me is when Willa’s friends refuse to give the phone number to the military or when Toejam decides to sacrifice himself to save Willa from the people who are going to kill her. These smaller forms of rebellion support the theme of fighting many small battles against fascism and are the most interesting commentary on rebellion. While these moments are in the film, it feels as if they are more incidental and not what the story focuses on. The focus seems to be more on how inept Bob is at everything, which is funny but not generation-defining. There are only 2 main scenes where Bob and Willa talk to each other before and after they are separated for the majority of the film, so if this is supposed to be a father-daughter story, I might have needed a bit more time to connect to their relationship.

TL;DR

It is totally fine if One Battle After Another is just meant to be a fun time at the movies, but I might just disagree that there is anything deeper than that. I wanted to love this movie, especially because I want to be satisfied this Oscar season. Regardless, this is a really good movie, probably my second favorite of PTA’s filmography. I am so happy it exists. I want PTA to keep making movies. I will continue watching everything he makes. If anyone can help me see what I am missing about this film, I would appreciate the help.