One Battle After Another (2025) Review

“Let’s rock and fucking rol

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

In life, there is always one set of conflict that defines us. But when that is set and done, it is One Battle After Another.


PLOT


The film follows explosives expert ‘Ghetto Pat’ Calhoun join a far left revolutionary group, the French 75. He falls in love with fellow member, a black woman named Perfidia Beverly Hills when breaking out immigrants at the Otay Mesa Detention Center. During that same mission however does she sexually humiliate Colonel Steven J Lockjaw which only leads to him being obsessed with her. As months ensue, her relationship with Pat does blossom but she gets caught by the colonel planting a bomb and ends up agreeing to his demand to have sex with him. By the time she gives birth to her daughter Charlene, she doesn’t find herself capable of settling down and gets arrested shooting a security guard in a bank robbery. Wanting to save herself from prison time, she gives information for the French 75 in exchange for witness protection. Lockjaw uses this information to execute every member on sight, resulting in Pat & Charlene to go into hiding in Bakton Cross under the aliases Bob & Willa Ferguson; As for Perfidia, she chooses to retreat into Mexico rather than put up with Lockjaw any more than needed. 16 years later, Willa grew up a free spirited teenager who resents her dad for being a paranoid stoner and grew up believing her mom was a hero. Within the same time that has spanned, Lockjaw has evolved to be a prominent figure in US agencies through his anti immigration efforts. Now he’s been invited by a white supremacist secret society, the Christmas Adventurers Club, to be a member. Wanting to keep secret of his past interracial affair with Perfidia, he intends to find Willa and kill her. First, he hires bounty hunter Avanti Q (Eric Schweig) to capture French 75 member Howard Sommerville aka Gringo Coyote (Paul Grimstad), causing a distress signal to go out to those that remain. As Lockjaw also sends troops to Bakton Cross to better his chances to get what he wants, Willa gets picked up by fellow 75er Deandra before her school dance gets raided and Bob uses a tunnel to escape his home. As he gets on the move, he tries to coordinate the rendezvous to meet his daughter but forgets the remaining greeting code that’ll get him the answer. Until he later does, Willa’s karate teacher and community leader, Sensei Sergio St Carlos, gives him passage in the midst of evacuating immigrants. When jumping across rooftops, Bob falls and gets arrested until Sensei pulls off breaking him out to get to the rendezvous. Willa waits with Deandra at a convent of revolutionary nuns and it’s there where she finds out the truth of her mom’s betrayal. When the Christmas Adventurers find proof of Lockjaw’s past affair, member Tim Smith (John Hoogenaker) is sent to kill both him and the girl. Lockjaw finds the convent first and as he arrests Deandra, he does a dna test with Willa to confirm he is her biological father. As Sergio gets Bob closer to the convent, he throws him out of the car to keep him away from local police. This leads to Ferguson stealing another car and reaching the convent on his own. He misses his shot at killing Lockjaw with a rifle borrowed from Sensei. Not wanting to kill his daughter himself, Lockjaw hires Avanti to do it but when he refuses to kill a teen, he gets tasked to send her to a far right militia. Tim does track down Lockjaw and ultimately leaves him for dead when shooting him down off road. Avanti then pushes his change of heart and has a shootout with the militia where all but Willa survive. She drives away with his car while Tim tracks her down and Bob catches up as fast as he can. She is able to trick Tim with the use of exploiting a blind summit and shoot him due to his failure to recite the countersign. Once Bob catches up, they embrace and drive away together. Lockjaw does survive the crash with a scar on his face and tries to lie to the Christmas Adventurers that his affair with Perfidia was not consensual, but they still choose to fatally gas him when seeing through his lies. When returning home, Bob gives his daughter a letter from her mom where she apologizes for her actions and vows to reunite with her someday. The film then ends with Willa departing for a protest in Oakland with her dad’s blessing.


THOUGHTS


With 2025 feeling like the end of an era for cinema due to Warner Bros. Discovery going up for sale, preferring Netflix over Paramount as of writing this, the studio basically had a trailblazing run with a fair blend of critical and/or financial hits, starting with Drew Hancock’s Companion and ending with this adventure thriller, the tenth feature to be directed by writer Paul Thomas Anderson. Having been a fan of Anderson’s work since I was a teen myself, it was an honor to see this in the big screen because not once does it disappoint in being an ecstatic experience. The combined cinematography by Michael Bauman and editing by Andy Jurgensen go hand in hand to create moments where it feels like the story ‘locks in’ as some would say with tracking shots like following Sensei all over his apartment or the final chase to name a few. Even Jonny Greenwood’s score gets the point across on how intense adventures can get for anyone no matter how much one can factor. They’re chilling and exciting all at once and that is what defines the unpredictability of relatable stakes on the line. It does feel a bit hilarious due to the comedy feeling relatable with moments like forgetting a password, lying just to fit in or not thinking straight when being a stoner. When it comes down to it, this one stands out much different from Ryan Coogler’s Sinners because of its grounded way to say there will always be resilience in any kind of struggle and as long as you pass on what you learn to find purpose beyond comfort, the fights that matter can carry on. Through a fantastic ensemble, the message clicks once the cameras start rolling. If you thought Leonardo DiCaprio can’t get any better a decade after scoring his acting Oscar, you’re mistaken because playing Bob aka Ghetto Pat is an instant essential in his filmography. Considering he’s a big spokesperson on climate change, this role definitely spoke to him like it had for Don’t Look Up. He’s all about looking out for everyone and even though his heartbreak led to him feeling imperfect as a dad, it didn’t stop him from trying when mattered most. As a single parent, he nails that fear that not being able to do simple things like doing her hair makes him feel like failure when that’s not even true because no parent is perfect. He doesn’t even know the love of his life was unfaithful and even if he did, he’d still raise his daughter the same because it’s always those that are there that count, not always those that share blood. As for finding love, I can’t rule out he and Perfidia were a great match off of truly caring for the cause and I won’t deny the latter loved her daughter too, but the way Teyana Taylor portrays her, she was someone who had the gut feeling action kept calling to her. She didn’t want her family to take it personal, but the fact she was having target practice while pregnant prove she just couldn’t help it. Whether or not she knew days were numbered to begin with, she kept hitting that ‘Fuck it’ button for her own sake and her regret does feel acknowledged when it came to the letter, however long ago she sent it. Apart from that, her actions are definitely gonna have to do the talking if she wants to be there for her daughter anywhere remotely close the way Bob has so I hope she does. For such an original story, you know you’re set for one antagonist willing to shake things up exponentially. Lockjaw is a role tailor made for a veteran like Sean Penn because he knew exactly how to be all kinds of unhinged with the screen time he had. He’s definitely one of the more cruel figures out there because he relishes off of being a dominant one. That does explain his infatuation towards Perfidia because he never expected anyone to stand up to him the way she did. That then sets up his inevitable downfall because he wants to have it both ways identifying as a prejudice guy while being closeted on what truly attracts him. Heck, he messed with Bob early on in public just to get in his head off of the fact he could. With that being said, there is of course no sympathy for him when he’s rejected for dishonesty. I mean you’re not fooling when saying you were ‘reverse raped’ no matter how serious of an accusation that can be in reality. Breakout Chase Infiniti is able to nail the emphasis that you set your own paths without the need to follow your parents’ footsteps because Charlene/Willa was someone who wanted to be independent but at the same time wasn’t sure what to believe until it all unfolded in her very eyes and it started when the customer tracker lit the moment she met Deandra. Once that happened, she took every moment all the more serious compared to before she walked out. She did take her dad’s teachings serious otherwise she would’ve never remembered it all. She definitely felt rightfully distraught back to back when it came to knowing what her mom really did and why she was being hunted because that’s just a lot to take. Rather than accept inner defeat however, she chose to keep fighting for her life not that she was trained to do so, but more because she knew she deserved more time to think for herself. By the time she tested Bob too with the countersign for precaution’s sake, the worst of her troubles were over. Her ending is fitting because going to a protest showed how big of a heart she always had thanks to what she was taught. Whatever she does now will then pave the way what the generation can learn from her and so on. Of course, there is no happy ending for her without the people looking out for her and her dad. Regina Hall felt refreshing to see here as Deandra because rather than make us laugh like in the past comedies she’s starred in, she’s close to the protective side Bob is all about that she’d rather go to jail than sell him out even if he knew where he was. She knew she was in a lose lose situation with her past decisions and accepted it instead of fighting it if it meant keeping Willa safe. On the other hand, Benicio Del toro was a god damn delight as Sensei because with his own progress of being a fighter of his own, he’s able to be pass on enough strength & wisdom for Bob to keep going which worked out in the end. Ironically, the only time he ever lost it was when he saw a kid on the phone instead of contributing to hiding. I also almost choked up when it came to taking a selfie with Bob after breaking him out because simple moments like that make life special. It was even smart for him to throw him out the car because the longer he waited, the worse of a chance he could’ve lost his daughter which thankfully didn’t happen. Drunk driving definitely does suck, but it’s better than going down for personal beliefs so I’m sure he won’t be gone for long and he’ll keep passing same wisdom to Willa in & out of karate class once he’s out. In conclusion, One Battle After Another will forever remain an essential film from 2025 for knowing exactly how to inspire people in more ways than one and if those are the kind of films you’re into, see this now.