Bob is absorbed in his own world, getting high while The Battle of Algiers (1966) plays on the television. The ringing of a telephone is enough to suddenly drag him back into his past and snap him into reality. By the time we reach this moment, One Battle After Another (2025) has already infected us with its frenzy. For director Paul Thomas Anderson, this is his second time adapting a novel by Thomas Pynchon. In 2014, he adapted Inherent Vice for the screen, starring Joaquin Phoenix as the peculiar detective Doc Sportello. Now Anderson draws on Vineland, published in 1990, to create the universe of One Battle After Another.

Looking at Paul Thomas Anderson’s filmography, One Battle After Another emerges as his most action-centered work. The Californian filmmaker, renowned for his mastery of ensemble drama and psychological exploration of characters, shifts gears in his narrative style to deliver a story where action dictates the rhythm and shapes the intensity of the underlying drama from the very first frame. In films such as Boogie Nights (1997), Magnolia (1999), There Will Be Blood (2007), or The Master (2012), the opposite occurs: drama prevails, and action arises as a consequence of internal tensions. Here, however, Anderson ventures into new territory, delivering a full-fledged action film without abandoning the depth that defines his cinema.

It’s impossible to look away. One Battle After Another mesmerizes with the cinematography of Michael Bauman and the score by Jonny Greenwood, two frequent collaborators in Anderson’s work. The photography and music become omnipresent characters, accompanying Perfidia (Teyana Taylor), Bob (Leonardo DiCaprio), Willa (Chase Infiniti), and Colonel Lockjaw (Sean Penn) on their hallucinatory adventure. The core of One Battle After Another is made up of these four characters, but what the director delivers goes far beyond them, relying on a gallery of memorable supporting roles.

With abundant dark humor and satire as its weapon of choice, One Battle After Another paints a scathing portrait of contemporary American society, exposing its fractures and contradictions with a sharp, unflinching tone. Parallel to this, Anderson presents the intimate drama of a father and his daughter, an absent mother, and a twisted military man who knows no limits in his pursuit of ambition. DiCaprio shines once again, proving his power to command the screen. Sean Penn is the perfect antagonist, delivering a performance of immense force. Teyana Taylor is the spark that ignites the chaos, while Chase Infiniti proves to be a revelation. Another unforgettable character is the enigmatic Sensei Sergio St. Carlos, brought to life by a highly effective Benicio Del Toro. The cast of One Battle After Another matches the narrative intensity of the action, turning the film into a true cinematic spectacle.

One Battle After Another beats with fury, but also with intelligence, an expansion of Paul Thomas Anderson’s cinematic universe. It embraces the vertigo of action without abandoning the emotional complexity of the characters that define the director’s style. The result is a film that moves between the frenetic and the reflective, between visual delirium and political satire. Along the way, unforgettable sequences emerge, such as the spectacular rooftop escape that fuses the vertiginous tension of Vertigo (1958) with the choreographic energy of West Side Story (1961). To this is added the final chase, a vibrant homage to action classics like Vanishing Point (1971) and Bullitt (1968), where Anderson ratchets the tension to its highest point. The finale unfolds with the solemnity of the great Western duels, condensing in that climax all the fury, style, and ambition of the film.