One Battle After Another (2025)

A far-left revolutionary group wreaks havoc on the establishment, including a facility holding immigrants on the Mexico/U.S. border. Lockjaw, the bigoted head honcho at the facility, takes an interest in Perfidia, a black leader romantically involved with Pat, the explosives expert for their group. When she has a baby, Pat's ready to scale back the work to prioritize parenthood, but she is uninterested and is eventually scooped up by authorities and pressured to talk, causing Pat to leave town with his daughter to live under assumed names.

I am not a fan of Paul Thomas Anderson, but I'm also not a hater -- he's just so inconsistent that when I hear his name I think neither "must see" nor "skipping it," but just "we'll see." For me, this one is definitely nearer the top of the list than the bottom. DiCaprio is paranoid magic here: just doing everything he can to keep his daughter safe, while coping with the mess that more than a dozen years of anti-sobriety have made of his memory. Penn also holds his own in a role that's much less fun.

This was a fun ride for sure, but Anderson needs to learn to kill his darlings -- there was no reason for this to be as long as it is.

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