Worth seeing:

for one of the most thrilling car chases in recent history, rather than the extra half hour unnecessarily tacked on the end of an otherwise entertaining thriller

Director:	Paul Thomas Anderson
Featuring:	Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Alana Haim, Benicio Del Toro, Chase Infiniti, DW Moffet, James Downey, James Raterman, Jena Malone, John Hoogenakker, Kevin Tighe, Patricia Ridgley Storm, Regina Hall, Shayna McHayle, Ted McCarthy, Teyana Taylor, Tisha Sloan, Tony Goldwyn, Wood Harris
Length:	161 minutes
Certificate:	15
Country:	US
Released:	26th September 2025

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

Lovers Pat (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Perfidia (Teyana Taylor) are fellow members of French 75, a radical left-wing activist group that to pay for their activities. During one attack, while Pat is laying explosives nearby, Perfidia emasculates the military police commander, Captain Lockjaw (Sean Penn), before she escapes, leaving him wanting to get his hands on her for more than just her crimes.

Lockjaw manages to trace her and offer her freedom in exchange for sexual favours. A few months later, Pat and Perfidia welcome the arrival of a baby, but that doesn’t stop them continuing their battle for justice, but during another raid, Perfidia ends up killing a bystander and the authorities clamp down hard; Lockjaw cuts a deal with her to give up the fellow gang members, but she flees to Mexico and Pat takes the baby into hiding, with new identities – Bob and Willa.

Sixteen years later, Bob and Willa (Chase Infiniti) are living off-grid, minding their own business – and Lockjaw, who’s risen up the ranks to Colonel, has been invited to join a secretive white supremacist society; all that stands between him and membership is being able to prove that he has never had sexual relations with a black woman. He has some cleaning up to do.

With the resources at his disposal, it doesn’t take Lockjaw long to trace Bob and Willa. Sixteen years of drugs, alcohol and complacency have taken their toll on Bob and he’s not as fleet-of-foot as he once was – but he’ll do anything to protect Willa.

WHAT’S IT LIKE?

Paul Thomas Anderson’s sprawling, politically charged tale of corruption, revolution and revenge spans more than a decade and a half in narrative terms and the best part of three hours on screen.

Anderson throws everything at this – from heists that wouldn’t be out of place in Heat to a car chase that feels as ground-breaking as that in Bullitt – against a backdrop of political subversion, resistance and family values.

Leonardo DiCaprio’s drug-addled, dressing-gown-wearing slacker of a fugitive is like an only slightly less laid-back reincarnation of Jeff Bridges’ Dude in The Big Lebowski. Relative newcomer Chase Infiniti, as the no-nonsense Willa, is a revelation who gives some of the biggest stars in the business a run for their money, in a performance that will boost her Hollywood profile immensely. Benicio Del Toro – as a karate teacher and former French 75 comrade – is clearly having a lot of fun and Sean Penn’s scenery chewing villain remains just the right side of credibility.

The car chase – along a dead straight but undulating desert road – is one of the finest pieces of cinema you are likely to experience for years – your heart will be in your stomach each time a car approaches the brow of a hill, not knowing what they might encounter on the other side. It comes to an abrupt end with an equally thrilling denouement that would make a suitable climax for the film.

But giddy with enthusiasm, Anderson adds another half an hour and another two endings, neither of which are necessary and one of which poses more questions than it answers, dragging out an otherwise successful, darkly comic, morally ambiguous extravaganza to a slightly disappointing anti-climax.

One Battle After Another – not the most catchy or best fitting of titles – is an example of how it can be possible to have too much of a good thing.