Writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson’s movies have never shied away from exposing that distinctly American decay. Anderson’s stories directly rebuke distinctly American visions of immaculate leadership, like the 1%, religious leaders, and cops. Magnolia chronicled late 90s ennui. The Master was an odyssey of post-World War II aimlessness. There Will Be Blood pierced the mythos of wealth equaling nobility. Even the London-set Phantom Thread asked audiences to witness the powerlessness of a Western authority figure.

Anderson’s new feature film, One Battle After Another, doesn’t trade these subversive concepts for his biggest budget yet. On the contrary, like Yorgos Lanthimos and Poor Things, embracing a more “mainstream” movie has just uncovered new talents from the arthouse auteur. Anderson bends the blockbuster mold to his will rather than contorting to its standards.

Adapted from the Thomas Pynchon novel Vineland, the feature begins in the mid-2000s. The revolutionary group The French 75 engages in militant action to free captive immigrants and protest banks, among other initiatives. The group’s members include Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor) and her husband/pyrotechnics expert Bob Ferguson (Leonardo DiCaprio). The two eventually have a child, inspiring different attitudes towards future activism. Ferguson wants to settle down, while Hills feels she’s just getting started.

Eventually, the script cuts to 16 years later. As a voice-over notes, “nothing has changed.” If anything, the fascist forces (ICE agents, police officers, capitalists, etc.) the French 75 fought against have only gotten more powerful. Meanwhile, Perfidia is out of the picture. Ferguson is raising daughter Willa (Chase Infiniti) alone and off the grid in the California sanctuary city Baktan Cross.

All that serenity comes crashing down when Col. Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn), a former adversary of Hills and Ferguson, reappears. Yesteryear’s battles never ended. They’re just heating up to new levels of intensity, forcing Willa, now separated from her father, onto the front lines.

Most Hollywood movies about revolutionaries (both real and fictional) dilute the politics of their central characters. Frida Karlo isn’t a communist on the silver screen. Bob Marley: One Love made no room for its titular musicians’ politics. One Battle After Another is a welcome and fearless deviation from that norm. Right from an opening set piece at an ICE compound, Anderson’s filmmaking wields a propulsive and transgressive verve. This story constantly challenges authority, unwaveringly portrays white supremacy as intertwined with modern America, and lets Black women be complex cinematic characters. Hallelujah on all fronts.

All these qualities are like a Molotov cocktail thrown into a modern cinematic landscape where Sam Wilson’s Captain America cheerfully claims that “no matter who’s in office, it’s always an honor to meet the president.” Willa, Bob Ferguson, and the rest of the characters aren’t noticeably more audacious than the film they inhabit. Instead, One Battle After Another is a fittingly subversive cinematic domicile for their exploits.

Evoking the “ripped from the headlines” thriller aura of Z doesn’t just imbue the film with relevancy. This is also a ceaselessly riveting enterprise. Anderson’s last directorial effort, Licorice Pizza, had fun hangout vibes where lengthy visual gags slowly simmered. Here, he strikingly shifts gears. Go-go-go momentum is now the name of the game. Too many modern films dawdle with excessive exposition. Battle, meanwhile, speedy as a roadrunner, emphasizes visual storytelling above all else. This script delivers a barrage of enthralling set pieces, executed with immense confidence. Immaculately realized car chases alone dazzle and will forever change how you drive on hilly roads.

These gripping segments also feature some of One Battle After Another’s most memorable imagery. In one mid-movie sequence, Ferguson follows exceedingly younger skateboarders as they hurdle from one building to the next. Orange and red/blue beams emanate from the clash between cops and peaceful protesters on the streets below, cascading in the background and illuminating the principal characters’ silhouettes. In another, an early unbroken shot of Lockjaw confronting Perfidia in a bathroom stall, the film’s blocking reflects craftsmanship that keeps viewers on their toes. Anderson and cinematographer Michael Bauman’s evocative images instill knotted stomach and curled, clenched fingers in audiences.

Equally impressive are later extended tracking shots in Sergio St. Carlos’ (Benicio del Toro) apartment. The hustle and bustle of activity is remarkable. What’s especially outstanding, though, is the rich humanity coming off the shots. In a single image, Anderson and Bauman beautifully and entertainingly communicate the rich community Carlos inhabits. The cooperation between phone sellers, skateboarders, parents, and so many others is deeply moving. In contrast, One Battle After Another’s white supremacists are constantly infighting and sniping at each other. Rich subtext informs the precisely executed filmmaking.

However, this feature is also a tremendous exercise in gut-busting absurdist humor. Anderson’s always clearly loved comedies. The Master has multiple laudable fart jokes. Inherent Vice has Josh Brolin humorously chomping down on marijuana leaves. Heck, Punch-Drunk Love starred Adam Sandler back when he was only known for Little Nicky and Happy Gilmore. This affinity informs so many great scenes here, including a fantastic early sequence fixated on a cloth-covered boner. Especially rib-tickling are any segments calling the older, drug-addled Bob Ferguson back into activist action. With his immense desperation clambering out of outhouses or remembering arcane passwords, DiCaprio hysterically channels big Tim Robinson energy. He’s such an endearing and hilarious out-of-his-depth schlub, right down to going on his Taken mission in a flannel bathrobe.

Better yet, it’s a welcome sight that this isn’t DiCaprio’s movie. At times, he functions like Josh Hamilton in Eighth Grade, a memorable supporting presence to the younger protagonist. One Battle After Another is Willa’s story above all else, giving Infiniti plenty to handle in her first feature film role. She’s more than up to the task.

What an extraordinary discovery she is. Worlds of vivid emotions exist in her eyes, a quality that makes those dialogue-free third-act scenes so transfixing. Infiniti’s delicate balance of unshakable rebellion and glimmers of a realistic, vulnerable teenager is outstanding. She’s the perfect anchor for a movie that unflinchingly recognizes the problems of 2025 America while offering glints of hope for the future. This is a richly human film at its core, championing communal cooperation and letting the next generation take the lead.

The systems are “rotten,” but the marginalized still look out for one another. Giving up hope in the future and each other is not an option. “There are still faint glimmers of civilization left in this barbaric slaughterhouse that was once known as humanity,” as a wise M. Gustave once remarked. Exploring those ideas in such a sprawling cinematic package cements One Battle After Another as a vivid refutation of a modern world populated with disgusting AI-generated White House Twitter memes dehumanizing immigrants.

However, One Battle After Another’s virtues would enthrall in any era. It’s carrying on the tenets of transfixing revolutionary cinema, like Z, How to Blow Up a Pipeline, or Vera Egito’s The Battle, not to mention superbly translating Anderson’s filmmaking skills into a blockbuster cinema package. In doing so, One Battle After Another procures an especially outstanding place in Paul Thomas Anderson’s esteemed filmography. The (filmmaking) revolution starts now.

One Battle After Another charges into theaters on September 26. To see if VistaVision or IMAX 70mm screenings are playing near you, click here.

One Battle After Another Trailer: