• Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
• Screenplay: Paul Thomas Anderson
• Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, Chase Infiniti
• Cinematography: Michael Bauman
• Editing: Andy Jurgensen
• Score: Jonny Greenwood
• Genre: Black comedy action thriller
• Runtime: 162 minutes

Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest project, ‘One Battle After Another‘, encapsulates everything going on in present-day America. The opening chapter, set sixteen years ago, shows us a regime change does nothing to solve the issue of mass immigration and border control. And now in 2025, with Donald Trump retaking his seat in the Oval Office and recent politically motivated shootings, the country is a tinderbox waiting for someone to light the fuse.

In this work of fiction, Leonardo DiCaprio plays Pat Calhoun, a left-wing revolutionary helping to liberate undocumented migrants from a detention centre. He’s got noble intentions but the group he’s part of, the ‘French 75’, blow up offices and banks. You might call them freedom fighters, I say they’re domestic terrorists.

The film doesn’t glorify radical protesting free from repercussions. A member of the French 75, the fiery Perfidia (Teyana Taylor), Pat’s partner, falls pregnant. She’s hardly a contender for mother of the year; as soon as she’s had the baby, she’s resuming her criminal activities. A botched mission later, she gets caught by the cops. In exchange for not being thrown in a jail cell, she rats her fellow comrades out. One single selfish decision. This jeopardises Pat and their little girl so while Perfidia absconds to Mexico, dad and daughter live off-grid in perpetual paranoia. Sixteen years pass, she’s a teenager without a mum and he’s a jaded wreck.

If anything, ‘One Battle After Another‘ is less of a political statement, more of a paternity drama. DiCaprio gives a commanding performance as a father desperately trying to look after the daughter born into a world she didn’t choose to be part of but was thrust into against her will. Perhaps that’s the truest battle. Pat’s heroic paternal quest is an idea everyone can get behind, the topic of immigration aside.

Supporting actors Benicio del Toro and Sean Penn pull their weight; del Toro as a karate sensei and Penn as a colonel whose fetish for black women puts him at odds with the white supremacist association he longs to join. Anderson’s strong visuals and Jonny Greenwood’s score cement this as a relevant modern-day epic.

My rating: 7 / 10