One Battle After Another – Movie Review
First Reaction – One Battle After Another is an overly long thriller.
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Writer: Paul Thomas Anderson, Thomas Pynchon (Screenplay)
Cast
- Leonardo DiCaprio (The Departed)
- Sean Penn (Mystic River)
- Benicio Del Toro (The Phoenician Scheme)
- Regina Hall (Girls Trip)
- Teyana Taylor (Straw)
Plot: When their evil enemy resurfaces after 16 years, a group of ex-revolutionaries reunite to rescue one of their own’s daughter.
Runtime: 2 Hours 41 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: One Battle After Another starts when Bob (DiCaprio) joins a revolution group with Perfidia (Taylor). They aim to cause chaos and fall in love along the way. However, they make an enemy in Col Steven Lockjaw (Penn), who aims to bring them down.
After the group is forced to hide, Bob and his daughter Willa (Infiniti) begin a new life. 16 years later, Steven needs to tie up the loose ends and targets the family. They are forced to go on the run with others to escape him, but he will stop at nothing to keep them quiet.
Verdict on One Battle After Another
Recap
The movie follows a former revolutionary who went into hiding, needing to reconnect with others. Their former enemy is looking to track down the remaining members and will do anything to make it happen.
Best Parts
The performances are the highlight of the movie. Sean Penn and Benicio Del Toro are hilarious, while Chase Infiniti is great to watch, too. In the final act, we get most of the action, and it is the best part of the movie, watching things haplessly falling into place.
Worst Parts
The story lacks motivation for the revolutionary group; they seem more like criminals causing chaos than wanting change. It makes it hard to support most of their cause, even if they have better morals than Lockjaw and everything around him. Elsewhere, DiCaprio is a very strange choice for the role, and his character is more confusing than anything else. He goes from the concentrated character to a washed-up drunk and druggie, without any reasoning. Meanwhile, the movie felt overly long at times, too, and it doesn’t help that it tries to cram so many characters in.
Final Thoughts – One Battle After Another is an overly long thriller which lacks tighter storytelling.
